Dwelling Place

Isn’t it very strange how some songs written by complete strangers who lead completely different lives can nevertheless speak whatever you and I are unable to put into words? How then can music fashioned by another sense become someone’s own whether one sings it or simply listens to it? 

When the Lord fashions a song in and through the heart of one person, the Lord inevitably place that song not only through its fashioner but in and through all who care enough to sing it and to listen to it. 

We are God’s dwelling place. Our persons, our bodies, our spirits are home to God’s song. We may be ravaged by the merciless trespass of disease, made febrile by abiding pain, seared and weakened by endless treatment, but even then… even then, the Lord rests and finds comfort in us – his dwelling place. 

We may be hardened by failed relationships, shrunk down and shriveled up by wrong choices, made ugly by pain we inflict on ourselves and on others, but even then… even then, the Lord rests and finds comfort in us – his dwelling place. 

And that gives us comfort. You have the Lord within you and when you sing or listen to a beautiful song that speaks about you, it is the Lord… it is the Lord who finds his home in you, it is the Lord who sings his song to you to make it your own. And how lovely indeed is this dwelling place of His. 

Dwelling Place - Himig Heswita

With Two Girl Friends

I had a fun ‘family’ day yesterday with two great friends (my high school wife and daughter) despite the non-stop freaking downpour and my anxiety over more thesis proposals that I have to conjure from the depths of my mind so have at least one approved study to work on for two semesters. 

The thesis forum did clear up my mind regarding computer-generated presentations versus manually done renderings but the agony has obviously just started. I’m dying to have my proposals submitted to the Thesis Evaluation Committee but classes were cancelled today due to the incessant raining prolonging my pain some more. 

It was raining when we met up early at McDonald’s Tomas Morato; raining when we decided to go to Trinoma instead of Luneta; raining while having delish Seafood Bento at Teriyaki Boy; raining while devouring our personally-made frozen yogurt at Fruitti Froyo; and still raining when we parted at around three in the afternoon. Bummer.

With J @ McDonalds Tomas Morato

with J and K @ Tokyo Tokyo - Trinoma

Model daw ng Marks & Spencer :)

Fooling around with J

Frutti Froyo with best friends :)))

we just love doing our dance routines. hehe~

Update 06.25.11

Will be away for a while. I'm working really hard with those thesis proposals. *ugh* T_T
I feel like a trend-freak scouring every architectural sites and news portals for the latest local problems I could address architecturally. Good luck with that.

Update 06.19.11

• Everyone voted me to be the president of our thesis consultation class. The officers and our thesis adviser are really looking forward to a semester driven by intellectual honesty, camaraderie and concord, fostering good value and genuine fellowship towards a zero-casualty thesis advising class of the school year. 
• I have not yet prepared any back-up proposals in case the first three ones get screwed up. I felt like having multiple heart attacks last Saturday during our consultation class. Everything is all too nerve-wracking. 
• I’ll be posting soon a link of our barangay’s website. We just had our pictorial last Friday (which was my birthday!). We had our session garbed up in barong tagalogs giving me the impression of being in the Senate or Congress. LOL. I could get used to that set up. 
• Missed our choir’s summer (read: stormy!) excursion at San Mateo but had a blast singing at today’s morning services at our parish. I missed singing so much.
• Talked to one of my father figures regarding what happened then at Laguna. It was liberating to be able to speak and let out the melting pot of emotions I felt then. Just a visit to the absolution booth and I guess I am now free to move on.

20th Birthday

Image by Teng Borabon

A friend whom I share the same day of birth chatting in Facebook:

Zai: Happy Birthday! 

Nowitzki: same to you! LOL. Thanks~ 

Zai: hehe... dami mo handa noh? 

Nowitzki: wala nga eh. morbid ako pag birthday ko. depressed. busy. emo. 

Zai: why naman? depressed from where? from whom? 

Nowitzki: ahaha. hinde ako mahilig mag-celebrate. taon-taon yan. 
Nowitzki: I prefer to treat it as an ordinary day. 
Nowitzki: It's a statement of one's yearning for a bigger purpose... 
Nowitzki: ...something I have yet to find. 

Zai: aahhh~ 

Nowitzki: pasensya na. pa-deep lang talaga minsan.

---

Image by Teng Borabon

'It is no wonder then, that in a largely post-Christian society, modern man is faced with a crisis of identity and vocation. When a person attempts to live as if God does not exist, he forgets who he is and what he is created for.'

Alton Pelowski 

Lessons in Design

Disappointments and frustrations are a very positive experience in making conceptual schemes. It means you are aiming for a higher goal/purpose. It means you are willing to undergo the process several times.

HIV/AIDS Youth Peer Education Training

My father woke me up to attend what I thought to be an excursion. I prepared for half an hour to catch the carpool service waiting at the City Hall fully clad in summer beach attire only to find out blindfolded that it was going to be a 2-day-and-one-night training program. Though it looked like I was completely out-of-place to be attending something that I am not even a member of, I am now considering everything to be an unusual struck of fate that opened my eyes to so much.

Young participants of the Red Cross Youth - HIV/AIDS Youth Peer Education Training

It was like a spontaneous weekend encounter retreat. The venue was awesome, the mountainous vistas were breathtaking, the food was simply great, the facilitators were very approachable and accommodating and the topics discussed were quenching and easy to digest. It was truly and simply awesome.

Creative Juice #029: Costripping a Bishounen

So here are photos of my recent rendezvous with some friends at the Globe Tatoo – Swatch Cosplay Event held last Saturday – June 4, 2011 at Trinoma’s Atrium. Jumpy and all, it was my first cosplay witness - a realization of some of my high school year’s fantasy - the peak of my Japanese animation fetishistic tendencies of oriental creative brain beverages. Because of its free admission, accessible proximate venue, and a chance to glimpse the gorgeous Gosiengfao (err, or was it Gosiengtian?) in action, it was an event that I just couldn’t say no.

It was a fun and special day as it was my first ‘costrip’ experience too, showing up as a rich and irresistible executive bishounen that kind of explains my fancy formal attire in chocolate striped long sleeves and bright red tie in floral silver damask pattern - the weirdest attire I could ever pull up my sleeve minus the wigs and guns and all the other unnecessary bulky accessories so as not to gain too much attention (or so I thought was the point of ‘costripping’ at all).

Creative Juice #028: Year Zero Fashion Show

Stolen Facebook photos of my elementary-crush-turned-super-gorgeous-college-model classmate walking the runway at a UST-CFAD fashion show entitled Black Easter Year Zero last year. LOL. These eye-candy photographs are so worth looking at when stumped by an unwarranted creative block. See, I've always had this thing on men's apparel I'd love to give a shot someday given the chance. I am particularly astounded to see how close and true the finished garments are to the final designer sketches. I'm literally salivating with creative juices right now :D

My most sincere apologies to the owner of these photos, please kindly leave a comment / message for any request to delete the said images.

A Young Politician's Rant

Image borrowed here

I have always had a bad imagery of politics in the Philippines. All the talk on the widening gap between the rich and the poor, the different antagonistic political factions and cliques, and the long-lived facets of corruption and plundering on the various offices that makes up the government have always filled me with disdain. As a young lad with a father that has been actively involved in the local government scene spanning three terms of services, the only picture I could remember of him as a ‘barangay councilor’ is with his political buddies and ‘compradres’ I only see during his birthday drinking sessions. I honestly don’t even know what the heck he does for a living until the recent day I got elected myself in the office at a tender age of nineteen.

How I came to be where I am right now was fast and terrifying. An almost seven months of attending seminars, council and committee meetings – immersion, I might preferably call – still leaves me point-blank staring and questioning what am I doing? What the heck am I doing? I know it is wrong to stereotype, but perhaps it is this long-held conviction of politicians performing dirty and under-the-table transactions that is making it hard for me to accept the role that I am now supposed to play in our society. It is weird. But somehow I feel disgusted at myself for always being suspicious at my comrades questioning their morale and intentions at the back of my mind.

Shutterbug Wannabe #019: Blurred

Taken during a not-so-long-ago double-date slash celebratory party of my bro with his best mates passing the licensure exams for Civil Engineers. Saw these while doing a clean-up in our hard drive. We had a vocal blast belting our hearts out at Timezone in Trinoma and filled our starving gastro-innards with fine food and a pitcher-full margharita at Gerry's Grill (Sky Garden - SM North). I remembered how irritated we were at our inferior Olympus digital camera. It wasn't only until now I realized what desirable effects it made on some of the photos.

Creative Juice #027: Bonsai Artwork

The digital artwork above is so giving me an idea for my thesis proposal :)
Image borrowed here

Shutterbug Wannabe #018

Taken at the vicinity of Boso-boso Parish and
Garden Cottages viewing area  in Antipolo dated May 21, 2011

Architectural Thesis Writing Tips

Image borrowed here

Architectural Thesis Writing Tips from ThesisTown.com

Students of fine arts, especially those who are studying building structures and similar subjects need to write architectural thesis during the course period. Since architecture is a broad term and all its segments require specific addressing, many resort to thesis help services. But the question is why you would do so, when you are armed with guidelines to help you out.

• The concept building: The major part of architectural essay gets devoted to establishing the concept. Here in you will have to talk about the features you are trying to draw the reader’s attention. For instance, when you talk about the sculpture of “David”, by Michelangelo you will be speaking about the specific style he had incorporated. Or perhaps, you want to include a segment like comparison between the two sculptures created by two masters on the same material. You are likely to speak of the individuality to begin with. You will need to deal with the specific angles that these masters had employed to create the edges to the figurines.
• Referring to what is said before: Architectural thesis should be based on works that have been written down the years. As the subject is dealing with the past, you will need to rely on historical documents mostly. The more you excavate from the library archives, the better for you. Faculties actually look for surprises. If your architectural topic is to do with a period, then try to collect material pertaining to the occasion. For example, if you are going to work on Italian fiasco, you have every chance to speak about the documents written about them during that time. Referring to chronicle give you the possibilities of gaining more over the others.
• Rightly said, art and architecture go hand in hand: Try evolving artistic examples to support your arguments based on your architectural thesis topic. Discuss the popular themes that have influenced the piece of work you are essentially reviewing. For instance, some one is talking about the patterns curved out on the Taj Mahal. The readers might expect that the student will refer to the influence of Persian art and Hindu patterns simultaneously. In many cases, artists and architects have borrowed ideas form both their counterparts and their ancestors. You should speak about these influences and inspirations separately.
• Arrange your discussion properly: After all you are speaking about an art form. Just like an artist requires building up his concept layer after layer, you will have to do the same. An artist create a frame, draws an outline of his mental image or the provided model. It is only after all these steps, that the man fills the empty gaps with appropriate color. Your framework will be your architectural thesis topic. The outline will be you points and objectives of discussion. Lastly the colors will be supplied by the intensive research you have been doing so far.

Architectural essays deal with things that are already there for years together. You should thus aim to do possible justice to the art forms that have caught human attention in its inception.