When I was writing the last few posts of my Weekly Haul series over at Baddieverse, I felt that it was becoming too much work, and when blogging becomes work, it’s no longer fun. I like fun. Long story short, I decided to end it. But blogging about comics is way too addictive for me and I can’t stay away from writing about sequential art. Plus, putting up this new Face Rockery blog gave me my second wind, as far as blogging about comics is concerned. So here we are. BEHOLD! My new New Comics YAY! series where I talk about my latest comics haul! I’ll yak about my new comics and you’re going to enjoy it, bitches!

Here’s how we’ll do this: For each of my new comics, I’ll give you reasons why it rocks. The more reasons I give, the more awesome the comic is. Fewer reasons mean the comic is just so-so or it’s terribly swimming in the sucktitude pool. Savvy? Good. Let’s rock!

Why my new comics rock…

Any girl who calls her blogging alter ego Exsanguinatrix is bound to be interesting. Which is exactly what Mixkaela proved to be. She was the very first reader to e-mail me to lay claim to one of the books I was giving away (Thomas Mann’s “Death in Venice”). And then she wrote me again when I offered free tickets to the Virgin Labfest.

Last Saturday I finally got to meet Mixkaela and bring her to the scheduled trilogy of plays for that night, “XX and X” (Oggie Arcenas’ “Seance,” Allan Lopez’s “Kasaysayan” and George Vail Kabristante’s “My Padir is an OCW”). I had expected a twentysomething career woman with a weekend leaning towards the arts. Instead, there before me was a bright, young and smartly dressed gal, a student taking up Malikhaing Pagsulat (Creative Writing in Filipino) in UP Diliman. Watching the plays was simply twice as exciting with a kindred soul like her beside you.

With usual dispatch, Mixkaela has posted her thoughts on the plays (a condition I had slapped on the free ticket offer). They are a joy to read, not only because they are written with obvious care and intelligence, but also because they validate for me the reason why I offered free theater tickets to bloggers in the first place.

Read complete post here.

Two books were printed in the Philippines in 1593, but it is unclear which one was printed first. Only one copy of each book is known to exist. The Doctrina Christiana, en lengua española y tagala (aka Tagalog Doctrina) may be found at the Library of Congress (LC) in Washington, DC, while the Wuchi t’ien-chu cheng-chiao chen-chuan shih-lu (aka Shih-lu) is at the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid.

Jeffrey Ambrose writes, The Philippines - Searching for Solutions, which takes the reader to a little journey of the Philippines past, present, and the future of the country.

Manila, Philippines – Arriving at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in the capital of the Philippines, a visitor from North America cannot help but notice its clean, but dated, interior. Its lobbies, concourses and service areas appear to have not been updated since construction in 1981, and a new terminal that was started in 1997 remains incomplete, much to the consternation of taxpayers. Although there are air conditioning vents in the ceiling, they appear not to be functioning. On a late night in May the temperature at the baggage claim felt to be around 27ºC (80ºF), accompanied by clinging humidity.

The 20-minute taxi ride to Makati City, the burgeoning financial district of Metro Manila, takes passengers past stores and restaurants with simple hand-painted signs, many housed in raw, unadorned concrete walls and corrugated metal.

Arriving in Makati, a stark disparity emerges. High-rise luxury condominiums and five-star hotels tower above trendy eateries. Shopping complexes rival those of American or European cities, with exclusive brand names such as Prada and Burberry lining the storefronts. However, even in these upscale surroundings, when entering a hotel lobby all visitors pass through a metal detector under the eye of several armed guards.

This short journey encapsulates many aspects of the Philippines today: the wide gap between upper and lower classes—a chronic frustration with government inefficiency—concerns with terrorism—a blend of cultural influences—and a level of progress that, while not on par with the poorest of nations, still lags behind a number of Asian countries.

So what is the current state of the Philippines? And will the near future be an echo of the past—or are new and better chapters ahead?

More at Wake T-rex

I am a science graduate who is going to get married to a resident of United States of America.  We actually met one another via internet chat and were hooked to each other by our interests and preferences.  Both our parents agreed to our wedding and it is scheduled in less than a month’s time.  It is like a dream come true to both of us.  When I was worried as of how to go with my fiancé to United States, he asked me not get worried about it and asked me to go through the visa procedures and their policies.  I started looking for information regarding United States visa procedures and formalities through the internet and found many valuable information.  http://www.guideforbetterlife.com has the best information related to all visa queries. It deals with US Visa especially H1B visa in detail. I came to know that I needed a proof of our acquaintance, the necessary documents for approval, the time duration of stay there if I go there and get married, the possibilities of getting  married here and going to United states for applying for a permanent visa etc.  I also found that there were many categories available and I was free to choose the one which suited my necessity.  I also found that I would be able to work till I get a permanent visa.  I informed my fiancé about the information I got and was relieved.

Sometimes we should expect the unexpected.

Continue reading at The Armorer’s Codex.

I’m posting in my blog a short write-up I did for Yasmin Sison’s show The Punky Brewster Session held at mag:net gallery Katipunan from May 24 to June 11 this year (hope the artist and mag:net both don’t mind) .

In the course of freelance writing for galleries, I guess there are times when some art works are personally striking (and exciting) in a significant way: not only in terms of exquisite visuals but also in their contextual significance to myself as a viewer. The works may or may not be overtly “political” in their imagery and themes, but nonetheless make good sense when understood in the context of these disturbing times. At their best, these are works that have the power to make us think of–or rethink–relations between prevailing realities. I think that was the case when I saw Sison’s paintings for this show.

The effect of the works may have been unintentional. Perhaps it has to do with personally having friends who were victims of human rights violations, but the first thing that I thought of when I opened the file images of her works were all the photographs of people who were abducted under the Arroyo administration, images of people who have been literally cut off from being seen and held by their families, friends, and colleagues, cut out from the rest of society by unknown abductors. [Continue with 'Painting the Disappeared']

Is this really finally happening?

Going to other countries will now be soon a choice and not being forced by unfortunate circumstance?

More at Wake T-rex

Toshiba is releasing its own model that *may* add competition to the Foleo vs. Eee PC vs. NanoBook battle royale.

Read more…

I’m suffering from a weird face thingie right now, but I’m not in the mood to talk about it in detail since I’m just starting to recover. I’m hoping to fully recover from this stupid thingie ASAP. Although this thingie has been the most unpleasant and most uncomfortable shit that has happened to me since… forever, something good came out of it.

See, when this thingie started, I became more anti-social than usual. For the last several days, it was just one big home-office-home cycle for me. Even online, I’m always not in the mood to talk to people, so most of the time, I’m off YM and Twitter. This gave me more time to do other stuff like working and putting up a new blog. Yes, you got me. The bottom line of this post is to tell you that I have a new blog.

This new blog is called Face Rockery (http://facerockery.bigbaddie.com). It’s a niche blog where I talk about my mistress: comic books and all things related to sequential art. I also yak about other forms of pop culture once in a while. I already tried this whole niche blog shit before, but I ended up quitting it. This time, I’m in it for the long haul.

Rock your face…