Month: July 2009

Collecting Guitars and Displaying Them

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DAY THREE. I think guitars are not only photogenic, they’re also awesome decorative elements wherever you place them. Truckloads of photos, coming up! :)

3/30 | Guitars are Awesome

3/30. Collecting Guitars and Displaying Them

[The guitars in this photo: Acoustic guitar — the only one that is actually making any sound; the red toy guitar made in Cebu, from Ivy; and the two guitar magnets — the bigger one I got from the Detroit Metro Airport during a stopover from last year’s US trip, and the smaller one from my brother who got it also from Cebu.]

I have not played my guitar in a long time (and have stopped being guitarchic, too, if you haven’t noticed, lol) but I’m still fond of anything guitar, mostly because I like taking photos of them and seeing them displayed. And okay, playing them once in a while.

Collect and display, there goes a rule to live by. If you have guitars in your house, whether you’re using them or not, take them out of your closets and display them.

Let’s try visual now, shall we? Here are two ways to use guitars as decorative elements.

Continue reading “Collecting Guitars and Displaying Them” →

Finding a Typewriter in the Most Everyday of Places, and Buying One

Rhiza14 Comments

DAY TWO. Tonight, as I walked away from Office Warehouse with my brand new Olympia Traveller Deluxe, I was momentarily in deep thought: how was it possible that I had been in and out of that place, unaware that I was sharing a room with a shelf full of typewriters? How, Riz?

Let it be known that today, July 24, 2009, I found my first typewriter. At Office Warehouse. In the same shelf where the printers, calculators, and USB gadgets are. Right beside the office desks where I usually hang out checking out stuff I need for my home office. How come I didn’t notice the typewriters there before?

Found: Olympia Traveller Deluxe

2/30. Meet Henry, My Olympia Traveller Deluxe

It wasn’t love at first sight though, mind you. You see, a few hours earlier, I was able to get my hands on an actual, oh-wow-I-can-feel-it-in-my-fingers vintage Hermes 3000 at the Grand Thrift Shop at Cubao Expo. The guy was selling it to us at PhP 2900, waaay cheaper than the $250 (+$150 shipping) unit I’ve been considering to purchase from an Etsy store. But the Hermes 3000 at Cubao-X was old and rickety and unmaintained. It could type a bit, but it kept getting stuck. The owner said he was selling it mostly as a decorative element.

But I wanted a typewriter I can use!

So we left, had dinner, and passed by Office Warehouse because I still couldn’t get over the fact that I almost got myself a Hermes 3000. And there it was. The Olympia Traveller Deluxe. It wasn’t eyecandy as the other typewriters I saw online, but I had to try it. The moment I started typing, and heard the clickity-clackity sound that came with each press of a key, I knew I found my first typewriter.

I have to forgive myself for breaking the habit and posting 2 hours late (MNL time), on my 2nd-friggin-day into this 30-day challenge. I prepared a different post for this day, but that was before I knew I was going home with an Olympia tonight.

July 24’s awesome thing has got to be this: finding a typewriter in the most everyday of places and finally getting myself one. A close second would be, finding out that a typewriter ribbon costs 16 pesos at Office Warehouse. That, ladies and gentlemen, was how much technology cost in the yesteryears. Awesomecakes.

And so, my first typecast. (Whut? You don’t know what typecasting is? Hello, Strikethru.)

Dear Traveller | My First Take on Typecasting

Reference to the novel by Audrey Niffenegger, “The Time Traveler’s Wife”,
where Clare is the Wife, and Henry, the Traveler.

Jody says she’s a dinosaur for getting attracted to typewriters. So what am I now, giving names to typewriters and writing typing them love letters? A trilobite? Awesome.

30 Days of Awesome, 2/30.

Polaroid Cameras & Instant Photographs

Rhiza13 Comments

DAY ONE. In real life, however, “polaroid” is different from “instax”, I just like using the word “polaroid” because it sounds so Audrey Hepburn ♥, while “instax” sounds so.. hi tech. Yes, Jody, that’s an instax photo you saw in the previous post. After drooling over it for months, I finally got myself a Fujifilm Instax Mini.

Fresh Box of Polaroid Sheets

1/30. Polaroid Cameras and Instant Photographs

As of Wednesday last week, I’m a proud owner of this baby. And as of today, I’ve consumed two boxes of instax films already, and have started using the last stack, albeit sparingly.

Some people ask me if it’s worth it, spending more than 30 PHP on a single instax photo (and about 50 PHP on polaroid, if you ever find one), in an era where digital cameras and phone cams are a way of life. But I say, I think the fact that you pay a certain amount to preserve a moment puts even more value to the photograph, right? Nod, I have a point. ;)

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sucker for DSLRs and digital cameras, I can’t live without having one close to me wherever I go. But capturing moments through films and polaroids is special. With film, there’s that element of surprise — you’ll never know how your photos will turn out to be until you develop your rolls of film. With polaroid/instax, on the other hand, there’s that giddy excitement of watching the colors and images develop before your eyes.

It’s an expense that won’t give you ROI, alright, unless maybe you want to be like Jennie Castillo, who made a buy-and-sell business out of it; or Scott Hammond and Jenifer Altman, who are by far the best polaroid photographers I’ve seen online, who can get away with selling their polaroid shots at about $25 a piece. (Whew.)

As for me, I don’t mind being just Riz for now, wasting on polaroid sheets, just because they’re awesome. :x

P.S. A bunch of people asked me where I got the “R” pendant. I got it from a friend, Elaine of Artecrafts. She sells made-to-order charms and keychains just like mine. :)

30 Days of Awesome, 1/30.

30 Awesome Things, One Post at a Time aka 30-Day Blog Challenge

Rhiza9 Comments

I’m hitting two birds with one stone. Since I can’t possibly do 1000 Awesome Things because I’m not that patient and my attention span can only handle so much, I’m listing down awesome things the 30-day blog challenge way instead. ;)

30 Awesome Things

30 Days of Awesome

I don’t know if you noticed it, but I’ve been practicing for the past 5 days (July 16-20), just to see if I can really post one blog a day. That’s how sigurista I can be sometimes. I want to make sure I won’t fail again, the way I dropped Project 365.

Oh you don’t have to point out that I wasn’t really successful in my 5-day trial, in case you checked, I know I missed a day. So maybe I can’t do it, maybe I’m a real failure when it comes to being consistent. However, the apprehensions only make me want to prove to myself even more that I can. Of course this is just 30 days, not 365. Besides, I managed to post one photo a day for 60 consecutive days anyway, so my hopes are high. I’ll do my utmost and breeze through these 30 days, the way she did.

“It takes 30 days to create a habit,” she keeps on saying. I think I’d like to see that for myself.

So I’m taking off my pessimist coat and putting on my happy, sunshiney self. For the next 30 days, I’ll be blogging and taking photos of (what I think are) awesome things. Wish me luck! :)

*Photo inspired by Kathryn and Julie‘s tabletop photography. ;)

Go, Make Something Happen

Rhiza1 Comment

You don’t have to graduate from Seth Godin’s informal MBA Program to get the gist: “Go, make something happen.”

Go Make Something Happen

Today’s dose of inspiration is all in these four words by Seth Godin. Which reminds me, I gotta start making something happen, quick.

* * *

Also, some link love to end the week:

Lastly, that photograph above was a crappy shot I took with my point&shoot last week on the way to Tagaytay. Scrapbooking does wonders to photos, indeed. I really should start scrapbooking again. Thanks, Paislee Press, for the freebie.

Le sigh. So many things to do, so little time. I wish there’s a way to buy time.

Oh well, happy weekend, everyone! :)

48-hour Cebu Adventure

Rhiza4 Comments

Hi. I’m here in Cebu and will be flying back to Manila in about two hours. I thought I’d blog something before we leave, just because it sounded like a good idea to blog from some place besides my desk (or my bed) in Ortigas.

I’d like to think I’m well-traveled, being here for the second time in the past two months — I was here with Mae and Joni just last May. But really, it’s mostly because a cousin from New York is in the Philippines for a 2-week visit, and I have been one of his designated babysitters and tourist guides since he arrived. He wanted to see Cebu (and our relatives here), so here we are.

Now this has got to be my longest 48 hours ever. We landed here Wednesday morning, and tried to squeeze in two days as much of Cebu as we can.

Mantayupan Falls, Cebu
That’s me (the one wearing the hot pink shirt), with the beautiful people I share my genes with.

It was a short trip, but it’s one of those trips that you’ll always remember and associate a place with. The secluded Mantayupan falls, the unforgetable rafting experience, and freezing cold water. The yummiest ice cream in the world made of cow’s milk from Molave — I can’t remember ever eating five ice cream cones all in one day. Sleeping in one of those bamboo gazebos and waking up to the smell of fried tilapia (that my cousins fished themselves), native tinola, and churizo. Daddy Rods’ home-made avocado ice cream, and Kuya Ginggoy’s kaldereta. Losing about 200 pesos over Majong and Poker. Cheetos, chapstick, the Terraces, cheap souvenirs, and making up funny songs on the road. And most of all, spending all of these with family.

I had to lose sleep and squeeze in work as much as I can in the middle of all of that, but it’s okay. I shall resume regular programming and catch up on piles of work as soon as I’m back in Manila, I don’t care. The past 48 hours is priceless.