Time To Tip The Scales

Been playing Cash Game Poker non-stop with the fiend club. The pressure is on when you're playing in the 'Black Table' with people from different walks of life, and i'm talking about drug dealers, politicians, businessmen and high roller gamblers. Easy money comes and easy money goes. Playing for a cause.

Always remember that gambling is bad when you're losing and gambling is good when you're with lady luck. While the corporate whores are working over time, we're getting money in the dark as we tip the black scale to our advantage.

When Giants Let Loose A Mighty Cry

Was planning to shell out some of my stuff to have a little extra for the Holidays, but then I figured that there are a lot of people who are in great need of these things right now, especially our unfortunate brothers and sisters from the Southern part of Mindanao who experienced the wrath of the typhoon. You know the drill.

When I came to the LBC branch near our place, one of their employees told me that there's no need to pay for the shipping fee if the package is off for the typhoon victims. Good to know that there are companies that offer their services for free in times like this.

While other bastards are getting drunk and feasting on to their banquets without shame, a young girl out there is praying that her ticket to a blissful heaven is alright. It's time to pass the good things to the ones who are in need. The help of millions is on the way.

Homage

Visited the burial place of my late grand father and grand mother at the Surigao City Memorial Park earlier this afternoon.

It's been a pretty good run this year but the Holiday season feels kinda off without my grand mother. Wherever you are Lola, I still have a bag of sweets for you and always know that you are dearly missed.

To Them These Streets Belong

After 27 days of waiting, Mr. Postman finally dropped the 8-er year ender package for the hoodlum.

Rebel-8 is a San Francisco based streetwear that is deeply rooted to the graffiti, tattoo, fixed gear, skate and punk rock culture. For me, this line is like the sum total of all the good things ( materially speaking ) in life.

Also went to the annual Jamming For Peace that's hosted by The Good People ( Tau Gamma Phi ) last night. Went for a cover of some good old tunes from The Ramones and Teenage Bottle Rocket. Still holding fast and staying strong, the 6th installment of Jamming for Peace was a success.

After a couple of years out the music scene, the lights and the stage never felt so strange.

Peculiarly Familiar

A few snapshots of my room. This room reminds me of my care free childhood days, the not so distant years of adolescence and all of the years stuck in traffic with vices.

A lot of shifts happened inside my room through the years. Made good and bad decisions in life within these four walls. This is the place where I used to listen to new old punk rock records, this is where I learned to strike my first three fast paced chords, wrote my first song, crammed a lot of homework and this is where I started sketching weird creatures.

This dresser is my sanctuary. Singles, EP's, full lengths, compilations, documentaries, tour coverage, exclusive live performances, skate videos, trippy movies, audio books, tapes, vinyl records, art films, zines, concert tickets, magazines and pins, this is where all of my shit falls into place. All trapped in ice.

I don't like posters, stickers and flyers, that's why all the walls inside my room and all the doors of my closet are so clean and tidy. I want my room to have this classy and regal feel to it. NOT!

This shelf used to house my abundant collection of Tech-Deck fingerboards, Gundam, Pokemon, Digimon toys and some Marvel and DC action figures, but now it's just a boring shelf repleted by caps. I can't recall what happened to my toy collection but I'm pretty sure that I miss my childhood every time I look at this shelf.

I used to order stuffs abroad so that I could have my monthly hoard of band merchandise and magazines when I was in High-School. A lot of my magazines were borrowed by familiar faces and those were the same faces who stole a lot of shit from my collection. From my vast collection of skate and band magazines, these are the only ones that are left out in the dust.

Lame old shoe boxes stuck inside my room for years and years. I used to put my collection of cards and stickers inside these shoe boxes when I was in Elementary.

This is the first and last thing that I see everyday whenever I'm here in my mother land, Surigao City. This alienating familiar ceiling has a lot of stories to tell, but it's kinda shy, so yeah, we both keep our secrets tight. 

When you outgrow childhood and feel the pull of the world bringing you down piece by piece, that's the time I'll take you down to where I go.

Departures / Arrivals

Bodies lined and piled up at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport ( NAIA ) Terminal III yesterday, as a lot of people were expecting to see their loved ones back home in their provinces. A lot of people were also taking some time off from their boring 9:00am - 5:00pm routine jobs being corporate whores and they just want to unwind for the rest of the Holidays with their family and friends. 

Family? Friends? Vices? Yup, it's time to put all of those bullshit in one box for the Holidays. This is the breather everybody is anticipating for the rest of the year.

Gifts and Curses

A long-haul exhausting day of paper works for the academe gone longer. A day of being a delivery boy of gifts to the people who deserves to get them got the long shot ride. A steady day of errands and rush meet-ups went overdrive. 

Got my stiff little fingers on the limited and premium "8 Fucking Years" combo pack from Rebel-8. The package just came out of nowhere. My dearest mother knows what's best for me in her own vocabulary, but I think Mike "Giant" La Sage knows what the statement 'FUCKING BEST' means in my vocabulary.

Also got this Cold War Kids - "Robbers & Cowards" record as an early Birthday/Christmas gift from a friend.

Ended the day with a couple of bottles with friends in campus. What a great way to end the fucking term. I guess it was a good day.

Something More Than Ink

Went to Get Inked tattoo parlor last December 13, 2011 ( Tuesday ) with the nasty hoodlums of Society's Bastardized Kids ( SBK ) Yo!, Mozze, Win and Limp around the premises of Diamond Arcade, Cubao.

The tattoo parlor is owned by a couple of Tribal Dutdutan Grand Prize Champions, Ryan Bernardino and Kenneth Iwarat. Both of them specialize and are well known for their works in the line of portaiture.

Finally made it to the tattoo session that was originally scheduled around the earlier leg of the year 2011. The session was originally scheduled May 2011, but because of the busy schedule and to other seemingly weird time constraints, it never pushed through earlier on the year. But yeah, we find ways and shit already happened! 

The infamous YO! of SBK accompanied me to the tattoo parlor since I'm not quite familiar with the place. It was out of his purest intentions to get a tattoo that day, but after talking to one of the tattoo artists of the shop, iPot of the The Void Crew Project ( TVCP ), for a couple of minutes, he already wants in. He even got the seat ahead of me.

The doctor is in! Nikko Samson ( Piss of the TVCP ) was the artist who's gonna tattoo me for the day. He came in a little late because of some other reasons, but it's all good! We discussed a bit on what the concept was really about, how the flow was gonna go, a couple of revisions and enhancements with the sketch, then boom! Before you know it, the session was already on the way.

Mozze, Win and Yo! ( SBK )

Since we started a bit late on our session, we also came out rather short with time. Around 70% of the tattoo was done in 5 hours with a couple of breaks, which is definitely not bad. The next session, with all the work for the background and color enhancements, will push through next year. 

Long commute on the way home because the train stations were already closed. Sucks. 

Physically and mentally drained. Dead beat. Hungry. That's it for the day. Big exams coming up tomorrow. Fuck the Political Economy. Tssss.