TWO DAYS FOR SIX YEARS

With the coming of the sembreak I was able to face one of the more pressing issues in life today, registering for the upcoming 2010 elections.

If it was up to me I would gladly sacrifice my right of suffrage just to escape the hellish line of registration. But it’s not just up to me, I owe it to the rest of the Filipino people. Now having the passion to be registered for the sake of my country’s wellbeing is quite different from braving the actual registration process.

After 19 hours stretched over a span of three days of waiting in line that could have encircled the world over twice, I was finally able to get that coveted step of registration: the biometrics.

Believe it or not I actually started registration back in summer when the Comelec (Commission on Elections) setup a satellite registration venue at our village. The first six hours of my labor was spent just on getting the actual registration form and having my name validated and so on. I was rescheduled for my biometrics on July, but being the student that I am, I wasn’t able to come since the day was in conflict with my class schedule.

Come sembreak I was finally able to fall in line at the city hall for my biometrics. But after ten hours of waiting I was yet again rescheduled. Thankfully my dad came with me that day, and thankfully a sort of uprising happened among the other people in line. When 5pm came only 400 people will be accepted, the guards made the mistake of giving people false hopes, so when the guard closed the gates at around 7 (the reg was supposed to be closed by 9), people became restless and started shouting and mobbing the gate. Thankfully my dad was among those who calmed down the people by speaking with the head honcho and asking him to device a system that will enable those rescheduled for the next day (such as myself) to be assured of a different and separate line with a biometric machine all to ourselves.

The next day, arriving at around seven in the morning, I was shocked to see a single line twice as long as the line I had the day before. And it was only seven! So my dad yet again spoke with the head honcho and only then and there did they put into action the system my dad suggested.

Two lines instead of a single snaking hell line were implemented. One for the people who were in line the day before and rescheduled for today, the other was for the new souls set to suffer in limbo. The system worked, as the office was able to accommodate the two batches at the same time without raising the ire of any party. And so my dad was the hero for the day.

After three hours of waiting I finally got my biometric scan and all, and am now a proud registered voter. After all that grueling physical, mental, psychological trauma, I was finally able to be free of that line. It was so long you could have met someone while in line, built a relationship with that person, fought with the person, and have a clean break-up, all while in line.

Now that I’m free of the registration, it is time to assure the freedom of the Filipino people for the next six years by making the right choice come Election Day in 2010.

AUTO-MATON

I am now with a car. Bow.

Yes people, after three and a half years of waiting, my folks finally gave in to my request (more like plead) of having my own car. It is a second hand white 1998 Honda Civic. Nothing special but it means the world to me right now. Actually with the many warnings my dad gave me—if I as much as place a scratch on it—it is now more valuable than even my own life.

For the car geeks out there what it does boast is a spoiler, 15 inch mags, and a 6-track CD changer at the trunk. Pretty nifty for a beat meister wannabe.

In the meantime though I am only restricted to driving it around the village, during driving lessons, and the occasional “try mo i-drive hanggang sa main road, tapos exchange tayo pagkatapos sa malapit na gas station” moments. Parents’ Rule: NO LICENSE, NO TAKING THE CAR OUT ALONE…YET.

So here I am listening to Amber Riley’s “Bust Your Windows” from Glee, finally glad that I have my own windows to bust.

PITCHIN’ IN BLACK

Just like before I have managed to maintain this blog unmaintained. Translation: no entries for quite some time. Who can blame me? Juggling 21 units, 2 orgs and thesis writing is no easy feat. Anyway this is what happened to me so far:

Joy, Bikay, Rikka and Me

Went to the Junior Marketing Association’s annual Adhoc Event. This year’s theme was Pitchblack: Experience blindness. Enter the imagination. It was held at the SMX convention center last August 29.

As to be expected it was a success of sorts. A lot of people came (I was with Bikay, Rikka, and Joy…but was able to hook up with Bian, Barry, and Kelvin…saw Cake too…along with other BC people…boo Journ pips!). The 20 ft. seamless projections they promised were not seamless and were definitely not 20 ft., unless you measure the projections lengthwise. There were like 6 separate projections of at least 10 ft…that was it.

Drinks did manage to hold up until around 2 in the morning, that was until cups ran out (heavens no!), but I managed to get hold of a bottle and had that one refilled over and over and…yeah two times. That Cossack flaming shot was just insane! I wanted to go for another round but Bian was already tipsy (boo!).

I had breakfast with Bikay and the other BC people at Mcdo The Fort (why The Fort? Long story), and then slept the rest of the night…or the wee hours of the morning (we left SMX at around 3:30) with Bikay and Bian at Gelo’s place (eternal gratitude for the ride and crib Gelo!).

That was it. No throwing up, no hooking up, just grindin and slicin the dancefloor. (and a whole lotta smoking…hooray for the al fresco party! Hahaha!)

LA SUPER LAST SUPPER!

Bureaucrazy.

I won’t be surprised if one of these days a person would run amok because of the craziness of our bureaucratic system. The system is filled with so much red tape, I’m surprised our government buildings are not colored red. The system is so slow, I’m surprised a wormhole in the fabric of time hadn’t opened up and swallowed them yet.

Left: the film's protagonist C: his hunky assistant R: one of the Last Suppers being considered for a corned beef advertisement

Last night I was able to watch the Cinemalaya 5’s Best Picture: the comedic tale of Last Supper No. 3. I would like to place emphasis on how other universities suck, because UP unlike them, has again sponsored the re-showing of these year’s Cinemalaya entries. Hurrah for liberal education! Hurrah for freedom of the UP Film Institute! Hurrah for me being a UP student! Sucks to be you other university students!

Anyway.

Last Supper No. 3 is about the riveting tale of a gay production assistant who loses a measly Last Supper tapestry and the series of unfortunate bureaucratic events which escalated after that. The comic attack of the film on one of the biggest problems of our country is effective and will indeed send you in a laughing fit. But after laughing so hard from all the Murphy’s Law (everything that can go wrong, WILL go wrong) action that is happening in the screen, the movie will make you think: why do we even have this sort of problem?

The bone of contention: Last Supper No.3

The bureaucracy is supposed to bring order by presenting a system which works and functions for the convenience of the people. But oftentimes this is not the case. Long lines, frustrating employees, dilapidated structures, fucked-up justice system, no wonder people are not fans of the prospect of entering a government building.

For what it is worth, the film deserves to win for one important aspect: it provides a refreshing take on an important but already mundanely-perceived subject. Plus Maricel Soriano and Ricky Davao made cameos. Plus it is far better than the dizzying darkness of Engkwentro.

By the way it is based on a true story.

Literally.

CRAZY TRIVIA

Found this crazy site check it out and have your own crazy trivia revealed! Far out! http://thesurrealist.co.uk/trivia.pl

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Jean Lander Agor!

1. Fish travel in schools, but whales travel in Jean Lander Agor!
2. If you lie on your back with your legs stretched it is impossible to sink in Jean Lander Agor.
3. Moles are able to tunnel through 300 feet of Jean Lander Agor in a day.
4. There is actually no danger in swimming right after you eat Jean Lander Agor, though it may feel uncomfortable.
5. Forty percent of the world’s almonds and twenty percent of the world’s peanuts are used in the manufacture of Jean Lander Agor.
6. Fifty-two percent of Americans drink Jean Lander Agor.
7. There are more than two hundred different kinds of Jean Lander Agor.
8. Jean Lander Agor is the world’s tallest woman.
9. The Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter is made entirely of Jean Lander Agor!
10. The military salute is a motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armour raised their visors to reveal Jean Lander Agor.

F THE FUTURE

It’s the last day of the first month of my last year in UP. I am now officially a senior student. Expected to start my thesis, expected to graduate the next semester, expected to be a bachelor of journalism. A lot of expectations. It is funny how I expected these things myself just three years ago. But now, at the last leg of the race, I’m not expecting anything anymore.

As long as I can remember I have always been quite cynical. Expecting the worst scenario, anxious about so many things I believe might go wrong, dreading a train wreck that might never even happen. I guess it’s because I keep fooling myself that it is better to expect the worse so the blow won’t be too hard when it comes (even though the blow might never come).

No. I am not emo. Just jaded and running out of happy thoughts to think about.

Is there really something waiting for me after college? Am I really prepared to leave university life? Will I be able to be part of a field I have envisioned myself to be in since I started college life? I have no frigging idea.

When I was in grade school, I always said there will be high school. When I was in high school, I said college will be the charm. I’m nearing the end of the line, there might not be another chance. Law school is a prospect, but a really far one.

My life is just ebbing away while the lives of others are prospering (bitter much?).

Enough with the goddamn race. Just drag me and be done with it. Whatever comes will be fine I guess.

I’m no stranger to failures.

This is what happens when I listen to Howie Day’s Collide. Bummer.

HITTING PAUSE

No more early morning commutes. No more braving the god-forsaken savagery of the MRT. No more slavery to the chronological accuracy of the bundy clock. No more transcriptions and shotlists of never-ending tapes of footage. No more. At least for now.

 

            I may have stopped from doing shotlists, the running time of my brief internship may have come to a screeching halt, but the things I learned from pursuing and having an internship started way beyond the moment I typed my first time code and punched my timecard.

 

            Being an intern for the Living Asia Channel, a travel and lifestyle oriented cable channel, is not how I perceived my summer internship would turn out. I have always dreamt of being part of an advertising agency, a public relations firm, or even the corporate communications department of some channel. But not in a travel and lifestyle cable channel. But competition and unreasonable choosiness from my part got the best of me. Getting over the frustration was my first lesson. Looking beyond veneers and the office location was my second.

            Just like any simpleminded student, unscathed by the harsh realities of the real world, I was led to believe that the more popular the media outfit, the better the internship. Being an intern for LAC taught me one important lesson: big things do come in small packages. Size of office and popularity among people don’t matter. It’s the people you work with.

 

            Tons of shotlists. That is the bulk of my work in LAC. It may sound mundane, but it’s not. Stop. Look. Listen. That is the mantra of shotlisting. You stop the player (actually just pause, but you get the idea), look at the time code and correctly identify the shot, then listen intently and correctly transcribe interviews if there are any. With every time code you see and frame of footage you view, you actually discern quality over quantity. Plus there are the much-awaited transcriptions of interviews which will test every fiber of patience in your body. Research is also an important part of the process. You can’t correctly identify a good shot if your facts are wrong.

 

            During my brief stay, we were also taught minor video editing. I had the chance to do the roster of events for the whole month of May. The roster is but a short sequence of animated frames. One of the editors showed me how to tweak the frames based on the already created templates. Very minor for video editing but at least I was able to get a shot at it. Because of my work, the project manager also assigned me to do research for the content of the sequence for the month of June. Everything for TV is indeed made way in advance.

 

            Dabbling in scriptwriting was perhaps the work which seemed closer to home. But writing for TV is a far cry from writing for print. Time and time again this difference has always been said by professors. I have also proven this inside the classroom, having taken up TV Journalism just two sems ago. But actually doing it for a set of editors was a different thing. You have to go over miles of shotlists and mountains of footage to get that elusive perfect shot locked and loaded. Lock the appropriate shot to the correct voiceover, and make sure the shot is loaded enough with drama and sense to be appreciated. Every shot has to be a silver bullet. Thankfully the script we made for one of LAC’s segments is at par with the head writer’s expectations and is even under consideration for airing.

 

            Perhaps the most exciting part of working for a travel and lifestyle channel is the traveling part. Unfortunately due to security reasons we were not allowed to go on location shoots outside Metro Manila. We were fortunate enough though to be tagged along during the month long coverage of the Zamboanga Peninsula Fair organized by the Department of Tourism and held at Clamshell Intramuros. I was able to come along for two days.

 

            It was great having to experience actual coverage during the internship period. I was able to practice my photography skills as well as observe how actual video coverage is done as well. Of course, keeping in touch with the reality of the industry, we were also able to enjoy the perks of being members of the press: free food.

 

            Working for LAC, I was able to prove firsthand the many theoretical aspects taught within the confines of the classroom. Broadcasting may be different from print in many respects, but both follow the basic tenets of journalism. Journalism through travel may not be as hard-hitting as straight news journalism, but both deal with people, social realities, and the environment.

 

            As I skimmed through footage after footage of shots from various places all over the Philippines, I was able to see how beautiful our country is and how diverse the people are. Our country is teeming with culture and yet we don’t seem to appreciate it. That perhaps is our biggest difference with our Asian neighbors. I saw how other Asian countries would harmoniously preserve their culture and traditions as they pursue the future. Back in the Philippines we forget about culture and traditions, thinking it would hinder us from pursuing development. How wrong we are.

 

            It may sound cliché to say that I have learned valuable life lessons during my internship. But I did. I was able to get out of my comfort zone by working with students from other universities. In the workplace you are all doing the same thing regardless of your university. It is not true that students from UP have an advantage. In the real world, packing a diploma from UP is not enough. Dealing with people is. At the end of the day having a good transcript can only get you so far. The real world is fierce with competition, and you can’t just use grades as your only weapon. Skill is not synonymous with good grades, and the more skills you have the better equipped you are.

 

            At least for now I don’t have to face the real world again. I can prepare again as I go back to the university. But this time I know, good grades are not enough. They never are. A thick skin is what I need to counter all the frustrations I may have to face as I deal with employment in the future. Popularity is but a synonym to common. Prestige can be found in small ways.

 

            This is not a stop to the live shotlist of my internship life.

 

            This is just me hitting pause.

BOOZE BONANZA (OR HOW MY LAST SEM HAD ME STONED)

My semester is finally over. Five months of hellish academic work, nagging professors, and backbreaking requirements are now gone (at least for now). Not to mention five months worth of heartaches and crushed crushes. Everything from those five months is now moot and academic. But before we usher in the new semester, let’s look back at how I fared in my 21 units worth of subjects last sem.

But before we get too excited, let me first announce the theme for this sem’s semender review (last sem I did a review with a sexual theme). It’s no secret that I am an alcoholic (Hi, I’m Jean, and I am an alcoholic…AA meeting over), and so this sem’s theme would be entitled: JEAN’S BAR LIST OF BOOZY SUBJECTS, where we group last sem’s hellish courses according to their academic toxicity, alcoholic proof, and booziness (or just plain boo!).

 

Journalism 122 (Publication Design and Layout) – the last major subject in the journalism majors series, the vodka of the bunch. Vodka has got to be my favorite liquor. It can be mixed with almost anything citrusy or be taken on the rock. It has the punch you need without the ugly after taste. J 122 is just like that. I love it. It is my favorite subject this sem. With this subject I was able to do what I love doing best: designing and print layout. From calling cards, to brochures, to newspaper frontpages, and magazine spreads, I have enjoyed each and every shot of this vodka bliss with different mixes. Of course doing your very own website using only HTML handcoding is an experience I will never forget. That experience was like vodka on the rocks, you regret not mixing it with anything because it’s too bitter, but then you realize mixing is not always an option, and all you really need is ice (in this case it was Notepad). I loved the subject, and I would gladly take it again if I would have the chance. Just like vodka, it will never go out of style.

 

Journalism 152 (Public Relations) – I have always been a fan of advertising and not PR, but after taking this course, I think I will also like PR as much as I like advertising. It is like red wine. When you first taste wine, you don’t drink it at once, you smell it first, appreciate its color, then you sip it, then you ask for more. That is exactly how PR went for me. I dabbled in a bit of it, tried to appreciate its intricate paperwork and research, then tried to apply it (“tried” is the operative word, because we didn’t have the time to actually do our own PR events, reporting to a make-believe clientele and doing a PR proposal were all we were able to do). But good wine takes time to mature, and just like my appreciation for PR, I think I would have to wait a little longer or experience a bit more, to truly love it.

 

Journalism 123 (Photojournalism) – my lightest subject this sem. No worries, no hard labor, but when you DO have to do labor…it really IS hard labor. It is like good old beer. When you like to have it, you can easily buy it. You can drink it on the go, and have as many as you want. But there is always the fear of having too many, and growing a beer belly. Photojournalism was just like that, easy, fast, and on the go. But creating a midterm plate and doing a media presentation for your final plate are just two beer bellies hard to ignore. Mind you, those were the only requirements for the course, so I shouldn’t be really complaining…but still. But just like a cheap bucket of six, J123 provided two cheap thrills for me: a DSLR, and being classmates with 2. Oh yeah!

 

Communication Research 101 (Intro to Comm Res) – this is definitely my brandy. It is bitter, it is boring, it is old (and it’s not just the professor either)! I absolutely hate CommRes! It is the cause of my sleepless nights, the root of my aching fingers and blurry vision, and excessive coke intake in the morning. CommRes is supposed to help us out in our thesis writing next year, just like brandy, it is supposed to serve a greater good (in brandy’s case, better blood circulation). But brandy can’t be mixed with anything, it is not a party drink, and I really don’t like the searing aftertaste. I don’t care if a shot of brandy a day is good for your circulation…whatever man! Having to do a thesis proposal is already hard work, but having to do two in a sem for one measly subject, is just insane! Comm Res professors, please hear my call, ComRes is not the only subject we CMC students have to deal with! Bear with us! Argh!

 

Communication 120 (Mass Media Law) – the prof is bitchy, the subject is an ass, but the experience was hellavafun! Though this was one of the subjects which gave me the semblance of being an actual student, because I had to read and really prepare for every meeting lest I suffer the bitchy wrath of the professor, it is fun to watch classmates being bullied and bitched at by the prof. It is just like tequila. Tequila is a great base for mixing cocktails, it is sweet and tender, but just like a true bitch, it can punch you and knock you out if you pour one too many shot glasses. Finishing the exams for this subject was like waiting for the sunrise, tequila sunrise that is. Though you have to pore over dozens of court cases to review, the actual exams are not that hard. Just like true tequila goodness, even if you get bitched at the class (or hangover) is well worth it because you know—deep inside—you are the bigger bitch.

 

Speech 111 (Voice and Diction) – pretending to be a call center agent was never this fun. Learning the correct IPA symbols for transcribing words was confusing at times, but the sessions of speaking in funny English accents are more than enough to cover for the bad times. It is just like lambanog. At first you wouldn’t consider the lowly drink from the coconut because it’s too provincial or cheap, or for the farmers, or whatever association you have with it. But once you realize that there are such things as flavored lambanog (comes in bubblegum, apple, grape, and four seasons), you begin to change your stereotypical views. Speech 111 is not just for Speech majors, it is actually very helpful in speaking internationally (pronounced as innernationally) accepted standard of English. Which means I can now apply for a call center (cenner), and have a higher chance of getting accepted (agzepted). Hahaha!

 

Communication 140 (Mass Media and Society) – the prof is the best (Sir Roland…need I say more?), and so is the rest. I love my classmates (except for two irritating know-it-alls), and I love the reports!! This is the only subject where I was able to connect blood circulation and conglomerates, Christmas and plastics, jologs and ilusyonadang frogs, and desaperacidos and burning ants with a magnifying glass!! I had a super great time reporting with you groupmates! But the final exam for this subject, which accounts for 60% of the final grade, is just plain hell. The subject is like absinthe: illegal in some countries, beloved by all. You want it, you enjoy it, but you’ll hate the hangover the next day. But still, the experience was well worth it.

 

So that was how my last semester went. A little woozy, but not really. A little crazy, but not enough. Sadly I can’t say that I’ll be sober this summer…internship…effing internship. *hic