preparing for takeoff

guerilla self-promo

my old grampa johnny used to always say, "there's no such thing as a static moment—it's either your moving forward or the other way." the past week of blog-free living was spent mostly moving forward. or at least i'd like to think so.

half of the week was spent mostly preparing some works for an art director's club competition im joining. with the help of the studio people in the office, i was able to produce a much improved version of spreek je filipijns—one of the pieces im entering in the art director's club. well, the planning is to win in that competition, maybe get gold or silver. and also hopefully be named as one of the 2006 young guns (ie hot shots in the international creative world). once that happens, im a step closer into perhaps moving into another agency here in new york. and then, moving next year to europe, spain, or london, or even amstydam. we'll see how it goes but so far so good. of course it helps hearing from others like susan mayer, project coordinator at the ADC things like, "oh, im sure you'll do a lot of great things. not that you already aren't" and all that good stuff. or hearing from some officemate, "you do know of course, that if you decide to leave the agency, they'll counteroffer to death." well, that should be nice too.

but anyway, enough of this career-centric bullshit. to balance off, the other half of last week was spent enjoying life. was fortunate enough to be invited to several parties, lunches and nights out. thursday night was spent in luca lounge, enjoying sangria with a dutchie, a dane, an ex-westcoaster and a native mathattanite. first time ive met most of them and quite an interesting group (i just dont get though why some people have to be so attached to their cellphones but anyway...) friday night was spent with officemates for julia's going away party. that party was done early but brockie the brit and i ended up going for a few more drinks after. went to some concept bar, grabbed a drink there. went to a medieval style bar for another drink there. and finally to an irish pub for another. by that night was over, it felt fockin great ye. even greater was the fact that i was up early for my racquetball with no hangover whatsoever, ye.

saturday, was invited to a lunch in queens at some filipino's apartment. enjoyed some good laughs and good booze. the food though, though good wasnt the most healthy in the world as is customary to filipino cuisine. and the group, though great and quite comfy to be with, felt a bit too click-ish for me (i guess its just me starting to realize/get disappointed at how filipinos in general tend to stick with their own kind—we must've gotten it from the chinese).

sunday, was invited again for lunch. this time by claire, a newly-wed taiwanese friend. she coooked a nice simple lunch for johnny (his husband) and i. quite nice actually. by dinnertime, i found myself back in the old apartment in queens to spend superbowl sunday there. enjoyed the game, the ads and the food (a good mix of healthy and unhealthy this time). and ended up spending the night there as well. although i cant believe now the type of commute i used to do on an almost daily basis. quite strange seeing all those long tired faces in the subway to start the week with.

but anyway, there's no room for low energy and any long face this side of the world. things are taking off. or at least getting ready to. this soreness from the weekend yoga and sports is killing me.