slightly unrelated. I'm gonna go off topic now, but HAVE YOU SEEN THIS VIDEO?

Since I finished my requirements for THE class, I thought it would be fun to just blog. Now, the people who know me personally, know that I am really in to animation and drawing. So, short as this blog post is, I just wanted to post this video I found on thedailywh.at :)



[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLpkjtWuPs8&feature=player_embedded]

From his eyes,

“Of the five senses, vision is the one I appreciate the most,” said Scott McCloud on his talk about comics. I can actually relate. I’m no artist, but I love art; all forms of art, really. Visual, digital, musical, literary – I live to see what’s been spiking up the art waves. To be honest, I would rather lose my hearing than lose my sight. Why, you ask? I don’t think living without seeing the beauty of life is a life worth living. I’m trying to not insult/offend the handicapped, but it’s a personal goal of mine to see as much art as I can, mostly visual, and take in whatever art I see. To do that, I really don’t need to hear, I just need to catch a glimpse of it. There are many problems involved in art theory, even with a simple a topic such as comics. And that is where great art in any media comes from- from people looking for answers and struggling problems.

Scott McCloud, whose real name is Scott McLeod, is a comic book artist and theorist. I’ve never read any of his works, but by his talk, I can see that he truly understands comics as an art. I saw one of his quotes once, on the corner of a page of an art magazine. At the time, it was just another small, insignificant quote. It read, “Comics is a powerful idea, but an idea that's been squandered, ignored and misunderstood for generations. No art form has lived in a smaller box than comics for the last hundred years. It's time for comics to finally grow up and find the art beneath the craft.” It got me thinking – have comics really been misunderstood as nothing but silly pictures in tiny boxes? Has everything about comics, the art that it is, been twisted into the idea that they are mere representations of a story? I don’t understand. To most, comics are just cartoons . Yes, I, too, thought that at first. Of course, I was just a kid then; I loved looking at the Sunday cartoons in the newspaper. Garfield, and the Peanuts kids were my breakfast cereal companions. The usual four-panel strips were my inspiration for what I now work on – my own “manga” (Japanese comics).

Based on the talk, it was said (in a way) that comics transcend through paper – they are not just drawings on a piece of paper that have speech and thought bubbles, with white borders surrounding them. No, comics are more than that. They are filled with history, they can prove that space moves with time, they have deeper aspects. McCloud said that there are four basic principles included in vision:

a) Learn from everyone – have something to look up to.

b) Follow no one – although you have a model to emulate, make it your own.

c) Watch for patterns – patterns are what makes art so interesting.

d) Work like hell – this is something everyone needs, basically.

Now THOSE are steps to live by. Simple. Easy to understand. Just what everyone needs.

My oh-so-sweet romance with chocolate.

Cadbury. Hershey’s. Nestle. Lotte. Mars. What do these make you think of? That’s right. My drug, CHOCOLATE.

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been spoiled with sweets. I never got sick of the delightful taste. I don’t know why, but chocolate simply has an appeal to me. Silky smooth and sweet, just the way I love it.

“Pasalubong” from anyone who comes from anywhere, a treat to make me shut up, a reward for a good job, payment I received when doing a chore, a surprise that I could eat anytime – this has been my definition of chocolate for as long as I can remember. It never occurred to me that chocolate had sugar, which made me hyper. And if I had chocolate during review periods before exams, the sugar would give me a rush that kept me awake for hours. Maybe I just have a low tolerance for sugar, or maybe I just thought of that reason to get my grandmother to buy me sweets, I always have sweets with me during exam week. I have to have all I need to review, right?

As a kid, I remember my mother sending packages from Korea – it usually contained toys and clothes for us, luxuries and more clothes for Mama, and food. Most especially, chocolate. It was something my brother and I always expected from Mom. While she was away working her butt off, me and my brother stayed here in the Philippines awaiting her return, and her occasional phone call. On the other hand, my father was busy being a seaman, "enchanting" exotic women, yet he still found time to swing by every so often and bring home chocolates. I devoured tons of chocolate, and I never got tired of it. Must be the reason why I'm reaping the effects of my chocolate madness now. Ha. :| I love chocolate, and I will never ever get sick of the taste? How could I? Some of my fondest childhood memories had something chocolate-related in them…………… Ha ha ha. This is starting to sound like some kind of flashback. Weird. I don’t eat as much as I did before, thank goodness. If I still ate like I did then, I would weigh as much as a whale. Ha. (There I go again, off-topic)

I especially love Hershey’s Milk Chocolate. It has always been my favorite, not just because it was the first REAL chocolate I had ever tasted, but because it was simple. No nuts or fruits, no special type of chocolate. It’s just as I remember it, but I can’t explain it. Weird, isn’t it? I just know what it tastes like, and most of you readers know, too; but I still don’t know how to describe it. Let’s see….. Something generic…… Milk chocolate is sweet? Obviously. Milk chocolate tastes good? That’s why everybody eats it. Milk chocolate is simply food for the heart? Now that is a description way off-kilter. But maybe it has some truth in it. I eat sweets when I’m happy laughing with friends, I eat sweets when I a bit sad (the sugar cheers me up), I could probably eat chocolate for any occasion or feeling.

There is only one question in my mind: Why on earth am I not diabetic? AHAHAHA :)

[http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=19552]

[http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/green-stats-323-chocolates.php]

[http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/03/13/tax-chocolate-to-beat-obesity-say-doctors-115875-21193648/]

[http://www.gnagri.net/category/food-dine/]

[http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2007/week46/index.html]

Doing the Hormonal Boogey.

Last Saturday, September 18, 2010, The SLU Guidance Center had the 3rd year students attend a seminar on the Adolescent Life: Challenges and Solutions.

It was........ Interesting, to say the least.

You see, I've never been the type to be especially curious about sexuality and sexual relations. It’s not really something I talk about seriously. Sure, a dirty joke here and there is fine, funny even, but actually talking about it? The sober side of those jokes?.............. Uh, not for me. What's the big deal? I mean, the topic is sort of uncomfortable for me, even my parents haven't had the "birds-and-the-bees" talk with me yet. No one in my family really talks about these things, all I know is that the S word is taboo in front of the kids. The concept of sexuality has become rather clearer since the seminar, as it was explained well by the guest speakers, but I still can't wrap my head around the fact that one day, I myself will go through that. Typical kid answer: EW.

Okay, I do know that one day, I will have to go through that. It’s just that the face of the woman, having already endured 9 months of discomfort from being pregnant, then has to suffer through more than 6 hours just to give birth. I now have a deeper respect for all the women who’ve experienced giving birth. I applaud all women who have had a baby come out of their, uh, "sacred places".

I get hurt easily by the smallest needle prick, though I know I can sustain injuries without complaint. I shout even before the pain hits me. It’s a reflex of mine, so just thinking about me giving birth…… Ahh.... I don’t think so. Not that I'm planing on having a baby any time soon, of course not; I just want to be ready the time it happens.

Anyways, the seminar really was informative, albeit boring. The seminar mainly focused on what we should and shouldn’t do, the effects of having PMS (Premarital Sex), how one can say NO to their partner, and the like. I found myself practically bored to tears. But something the someone said caught my attention. No, it wasn't Fontanilla's explanation of sexuality - "when a man and a woman meet... In bed," It was one thing I heard from someone behind me, a girl from 3 Magalang, I think. She said, "Bakit pa ba kailangan pumunta dito? Sexuality? Diba parang sex lang rin yun? E, lagi naman eto pinag-uusapan nung mga guys, pati nga sa Religion e minemention eto." (Translation: Why do we have to go to the seminar? Sexuality? Isn't that just sex? The guys always talk about this, it's even mentioned in our Religion classes)

I was baffled, honestly. It made me furious. How could they, students of a respected Christian school, talk about sexuality like that? It is a part of our Christian living studies, and is a sacred thing. I admit, I didn't know about how deep the meaning of sexuality was, but I never thought of it so shallowly.

Pregnancy, STDs, and so much more. Why risk it? And worse, why would a teenager like me risk destroying his/her life for a few minutes of "fun"? I don't get it. With all the risks involved that were mentioned by the guest speakers, I'm still wondering why people do it.

We're Louisians, aren't we? Puppy love and raging hormones aside, please, PLEASE try to keep your pants on.