The rage of AIRSOFT war

 Definitely not the rebels of these times. This is one of the participating Airsoft clans who travelled from Visayas to join the tournament held in Multinational, Parañaque City.

These guys spared time to play this cool shooting game using real guns loaded with pellets. A clan has to have almost similar designs of camouflage uniforms to appear like a real soldier (of fortune) while most just donned on any military attires added with whatever distinctive group accessory to tell them apart from other clans. I found it cool to see these guys in their most coolest attire equipped with bullet vests, pads and airsoft masks, because even pellets can lash out skins when hit. Imagine a 700-800 rpm of fired pellets hits you on exposed flesh and see how painful those reddish dots could be. I myself would definitely do not want to be hit even by stray shots while watching the intense game once hot summer day.

~This tournament has game objectives: They are to retrieve the bomb and bring it back to their base and detonate it before the given time ended.

~Two opposing clans compete in retrieving a bomb situated in a strategic enclosure in the middle of the field while hostilely shooting members of the enemy. Of course each clan has already studied how to execute their game plans. Others has successfully retrieved the bomb but failed to detonate it. Others has effectively eliminated the enemies with players too aggressive in assaulting the opposing players. It really is war for these fanatics and the marshals are busy blowing whistles to say that their watched players were already hit and is out of the game.

Airsoft is getting popular or is now popular and the thrill and satisfaction these soldier-wannabees get will certainly make their day as most of them has different jobs that is very  far from being a real gunslinger of the west. Lolz. These hobbyist doesn't mind getting  exposed to different elements. (A real soldier-like attitude eh). They won't mind the searing heat of an afternoon sun that drenched them with clammy sweats while busy shooting enemy clans. They also don't care getting mosquito bites in the dark canopied-jungles of Laguna on one of their out-of-town tournaments. They are actually close to becoming a real soldier except that their real jobs doesn't function the way real soldiers' dedication in protecting people against the society's too real frightening elements.

The Abu Sayyaf Clan? These guys looked shy but they become ruthless and merciless in the warring field.

I never thought that these guys are real medical staffs on one of QC's hospital until I get to see them on smocks, gloves and masks. Funny but the interests these players have on Airsoft is more than the thrill from what their real world can offer. This is much better than firing the real gun and slaying people.

This man is a vet doctor sharing Airsoft passion with his kids. In front is the youngest player of 11 having ever joined the tournament. Since there are only 3 of them, they allied with other clans who are short with players.

The Ruins

I was lackadaisically bored one lethargic afternoon. I cannot write because my computer broke down and the only option I saw was to explore the nearby building ruins and see what exciting things I can find. Equipped with only less sophisticated gadgets, in fact I don’t really have much except for my phone and an old digital camera. My niece came along and these are all her shots using my Nokia phone. I found it amusing because our simple afternoon saunter can show exquisite stories to tell. We spend nothing but time. We took nothing but pictures. We wasted one thing but ourselves. 

Maybe I was just fascinated to say something about this ruins or maybe I somewhat wanted to associate these pictures to the famous ruins in Athens, Greece. Why would I spend a single penny to come up with something to share if I can have something worth digging up in the adjoining lot? Hell yeah, there is no way I can afford to travel to every nook and places that I wanted to explore and share back the experience. Just around beside the fenced garage is where this place stood.

From this dirty ground entrance, we took the stairs two at a time and came up to the dark and creepy squalid stairs leading upward to the wide open floor in the next level. Actually, the entry is reeking with thick undesirable odors as the drivers of the tricycle terminal in the front façade uses this as their public outback hideaway to piss or to dislodge gross excrements. I don’t blame them as there really is no public toilet constructed for their use. What a pity that the local interior unit doesn’t seem to care.

The second floor opens to an empty space of dirt and falling debris from the previous fire that ate up most of this entire rubble. I remember seeing this upper part of the building being consumed by the raging fire, smoke enveloped the middle section wherein a company that manufactures fiberglass molded sculptures and statuettes occupied. 

 

 

They raped my mother

I was once working in a small media company who does infomercials, TVC’s and independent films. They entered the business of shooting TV commercials, infomercials and film making to sustain the company’s income and to make the owner-directors hobby in the world of making movies a reality. Having a fond interest in photography, I find it exciting to be included in the crew to shoot the new products of Alaska to be launched at their upcoming event. It was just a one day experience yet I love to discover how the making should be. I learned a few tricks, terms and a cool experience to hear my director said “Cut! Scene 1 Take 5, good take.”

I don’t know if it will be a disadvantage to say that I considered myself as Jane-of-all-trades but master of none. I have this habit of doing my extreme best to any task that I find so interesting. Well, be it interesting or not, I still tried to perform anything to the best of my abilities. Sometimes, I gave up and sometimes I got bored with it. But the experience that I have always stays with me as long as my memory bank can hold.

So again, I was among the crew who will shoot a stage play in Intramuros. The show will start at 8:00 PM so we were already there getting everything ready. We are to shoot the play about how the Spaniards came to the Philippine Islands, how the native Filipinos (Indios) accepted them, and how was the relationship of these natives towards the foreigners that inhabit in the island, particularly in Maynilad or the known city of Manila inside the famous walled fortress of Intramuros.

I do not have a profound knowledge about the motivational cause on why these Spaniards came to the islands about 5 centuries ago, but I have a hint that they are after about something. Something that most of the leading colonial countries such as the Dutch, Portugese, French, Italians, Greek, English and Spanish were drastically competing against to who will get hold of it first. At first, most of the foreigners befriended the locals and when they found out that the islands have something worthy of interest, they flocked like hungry vultures ready to devour anything that they think is valuable back to their homeland. 

This is a Chinese vendor peddling large buns of bread and was one of the noisiest peddlers who annoyed the early marketplace with their inarticulately high-pitched voice. (This guy is Gary Lim and he is a real actor as I have often seen him in the local widescreen.)

 Copious gold, precious pearls,  various valuable spices, rare minerals, friendly locals and beautiful women served as easy lures to attract these ruthless looters in the open palms of the land. Who would blame them? Local islanders are born with great virtue of friendliness and whoever steps ashore its land held any of the two sides of the coin—either to take advantage of the clandestine and tempting treasure or trick the locales to make them offer it freely. Thus the loathsome rape started and left my country bare of its naturally rich resources. How embarassing, how detestably wicked, how grudgingly nauseaus that my country suffered such fate. Now, I am truly proud of the dead heroes that sacrificed their noble blood to liberate the people from the great oppression that caused them to cry their hearts out.

Another chinese fellow in white silken shirt who offers shining shoes among those Insulares and Peninsulares. Chinese people interacted well with the natives unlike the meztizo and meztiza on the left side who stood aristocratically high and away from other local citizens.

Oh! Before I got carried away, I was just curious why the Chinese didn’t try to do what the other colonists did. I understand that Moros inhabit the southern islands but they didn’t try to take control as well. Looks like only the Europeans took interests in invading countries, sucked up all the rich resources  and left with all the treasure aboard their mighty ships. Almost every rival colonist are ready to wage war to those who would try to contest their interests. At some times, they end up reinforcing their reputation for strength and power to dominate lesser rivals. Perhaps, their principles of war proved the reason why there is inveterate war instead of lasting peace.

History is thick with gallantries, heroism and bravery but I guess there is no glory without the banality of humanly flaws that makes the point of conflict rise to its bad name today. I wonder how it was like to tread and experience the past, live the moment of the time of colonial expansion and witness the real and frightening drama of the people at that time. My poor imagination has limited idea of what it was like to live through such times and the picture depicted from this play has enlightened me to visualize the events and see through their eyes how the horrendous rape of my mother land took place and catapulted the Philippine archipelago in the pages of history.

Manila - NOMADS 10

Yo guys! I will display my shots here from the successful Manila 10 Rugby Tournament at NOMADS which was joined by more than 70 teams around the world. And guess what! I always end up as an on-the-spot-photographer because I am carrying an expensive digital camera (not mine.. grrr!) but holding one makes me feel like I am who I wanna be! It was hella fun even though the heat sears a lot on my already tanned skin yet I can’t help but giggled when cheering for my fave rugby team. Truly, experienced can’t be bought by any wealth and in case it could be converted to cash, I might be amassing heaps of riches right now.

This is the SEcomp Red Team vs NOMAD Gears - (This is the only shot where I am in… sucks!) And after another year… things started to fall apart. Out of 10, 9 left. Few are hopeless suckers, others are good, and one is the single person I won’t forget.

That is Tony Nicholson of Kowloon team with my Red team . I wonder why I am not in the pic, probably because… I took this shot… ugh!

Well, LPS, Trevor, Chris, said that NOMADS is the only place where we can see more men than women and never mind the liberated cultures of those foreigners coz they are just born to have great fun. I felt like I am in a foreign trip with those big white guys, sturdy big men that grow muscles in trying to get that “stupid” ball away from anyone while on field and who never missed to munch great sausages, mexican borritos, tacos, quarter-pounder burger, and also never forget to show their best team costumes which of course gathered most attention from the crowd. Again, my task is to become an “official” photographer which I didn’t expect coz I never was one good pro. Well, I have to do it or break their trust and launched myself into a freaky lady photographer for a day (beat that!…ugh!). Geez! why did they always put me in such a situation that’s parallel to what I want to acheive, (I lied, I’m not a gooddamn liar but I am pretty occupied by d previous events that i cannot think good enough excuses…) yet I have lotta fun.

Yo! That is Tony again on his chicken run to the goal… slamming everybody off…!

Well, fellas! What would you feel when cute guys rocks your world by ordering posters of their own matches and speaks Mongolian, Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, never mind English, Dutch, and the worst is… if they don’t speak at all but smile with total charms to melt even your most icy heart and took off your undies without doing anything. Yukk! exaj! Corz na, I haven’t just got over with the event yet..

Whoa! Proud winners after all the hardwork and body injuries and pain…

Now, what does Rugby game have that I couldn’t get my mind away from thinking about it over and over again. It’s like a drug that drives me crazy to get back there and endure the searing heat of the afternoon sun, forget that thirst is nothing than missing a good brawl of the guys in the field, and… and… display of butts that’s a lot common to most western men but send the girls giggling and swooning around while holding themselves back… har! har! har! har!

This is the line up of great men who wants to… “live hard, play rugby, die ugly!”

What is more heroic than dying under heaps of heavy men just to secure that damn famous ball off to the goal and roll on the ground while others pull your shorts and let those real balls say hello to the crowd. What is wackier than punching and stumping and shouting until the ground shook when players tried to outrun each other.

Brace yourself… strong wind may look real when in fact, we were just cooling ourselves on a giant fan. The effect may look the same but reactions are deceiving too.

I burned my already tanned skin, I starved, I thirst, I ached a lot… but I also have fun. But… who else knows d feeling of being left out … yes I do coz originally I took this shot myself and obviously I shouldn’t be here, but hey… I don’t wanna be left out again.

Phil Print Expo '05

 Last September 23-25, 2005 at Phil Print Exhibit, everyone was excited because it would be our first time to see our top of the line Xeikon 5000 Digital Color Printing Machine to show its first run. It was indeed an amazing machine because on our first day, people were crowding at our booth as we were running varieties of good color prints. My task that day was to distribute LPS' calling cards and collect as many calling cards from visitors of other printing companies yet it changed when I saw LPS's new digital camera. Honestly, I brought my camera tripod along with me and leaving mine behind as I don't want to worry too much on my own valuale belongings. I haven't get the hang of using a fantastic camera yet when my chance close in when celebrities like Cheche Lazaro and Sen. Dick Gordon showed up at the expo.

I admit I didn't get the best shots for them when I was pushed to take photos even without professional coaching from Sir Joey or anyone who knows how to use an expensive and so nice a camera. But everything that happened fulfilled my dreams to become a photographer in just a short time knowing that two celebrities were my first subjects. It was a good feeling but sometimes outcomes were not of the best kind since as I mentioned above, I am not a pro.

People were crowding at our booth everytime the Xeikon 5000 machine prints full colored pictures and were just quite excited to grab poster give aways. I designed the layout for 2006 calendar and I did all my best to learn what Dirk (German gentleman) taught me the day before the expo. Of course, Dirk's years of knowledge in graphic designing won't be learned within 24 hours since he would be leaving on the day just before the very day of the Exhibit. What he taught me were just easy ones and I did my own exploration on how to design a layout and putting my own ideas on it and my own taste of design with the best of my artistic touch altogether. I wasn't satisfied with the outcome of the layout but I run out of time to change it. Geez, it wasn't easy especially if everyone is expecting on you and no one knows how to do it except youself. Of course, I am not selfish to keep what I have learned and sharing it with anyone who are most interested would be my pleasure and have them see things on an artist's perspective and also on extracting the essence of art that would look good in the eyes of a non-artist passers by.

Multi-tasking is always part of the bargain on occassions like this but I never complained because I love what I am doing. Graphic and arts has always been an interesting topic and I am happy in doing things that comes out of my mind but pressures sometimes kills my patience and giving up is always an alternative yet I still make options and do things accordingly then complain later. Professionalism is the term that is best suited to acheive good harmony with the people that I worked with. But on certain time during the show, a man harassed me and threatened to break my face if he sees me outside the building just for the reason that I didn't make his order a priority. He even almost attempted to hit me with a rolled poster that he was holding and again point his finger on my face that he's gonna mark it and later break my face in case I will venture outside. Damn the man for harassing me and if ever my eyes and mind has bullets, he'd probably be dead that instant he offended me. You guys may wonder why it comes this far, well, the stupid man wasn't asking a favor for me to do his request but it comes as a sort of order and that pissed me off since I have top priority instructions coming from my big bosses to ensure good quality printout or jeopardize the reliability and stardard capability of the machine at all. He was so impatient to get his personalized calendar when he was not a prospect client himself but still got the nerve to terrorize my unfussy start of a busy day's work. To hell with him, insulting me in front of my friends will definitely make me a virtual criminal (coz u know I don't want to hurt anyone lolz!) and good thing I don't have mind-casting spell ability or he will end up dead before the show ended.

The group includes: (Big bosses) Laurence P. Springthorpe - SEcomp Pres, Wilhelm Swiggers - Belgian Punch Grapix VP, John Thij - American visitor, Flory Hernandez - SEcomp VP. Ms. Cynthia, Ms. Mic Martinez, Sir Al Uy, Alex, Oscar, Arlan-SW Manager. Young beauties who rocked the show... lolz Debz, May, Avy, Cris, Joan, Yum, myself and myself again.