From now on I would describe myself as seasonal (how apt, given the -ber months that we oh so hype this time of the year) as I preferred to openly expressing myself through pictures than words these past two weeks.

In between square brackets, plumb bobs and #4 screws, all of my blogworthy materials were still packed in noodle boxes in my head waiting to be exhumed. It's basically Save As then burn. Or Save As Draft, publish, then pull out again, like what I did in a recent post about the 90's which I realized to be too cheeky and impersonal. And with an image library aching to be cross-processed since last year, I decided to go the photoblogging route and renovated my site.

It's not a simple task though I am on the geeky side and HTML presented itself more like candy than a bitter pill. I didn't just upload images to the web, I altered some to fit the mood that I was into. Lately it's more monochromatic, silent and deep. I wanted to draw the eyes inward and see beyond what the cathode rays had to offer. I wanted to bring out the cactus spines like the thought of green mangoes when they bite the sides of your cheek. I wanted to deconstruct the magentas of a lily and paint it dark. Realizing I was walking on thin ice, I pulled out the lily but somebody noticed and got flattered.

I've entered the site in photoblogs.org and I was on the Hot Photoblogs list for two weeks, peaking at #69 (now is Somebody Up There saying something true?) before I disappeared with the dark lily. And looking at the topnotchers I couldn't help but despair. Of all things, I never knew that that site would be a Sex and Intimacy forum, only subtler. Aside from having gazillion color spaces or deep black and white pathos, here's one tip to be #1: get naked. I myself am guilty of shots in my birthday suit (as most of us are) but it's for personal consumption and would take me hell or high water before I show it to everyone, including The Commander of the House. Chromasia's other works are great (the great color gamut that I was referring to) but it seems like Flesh Is It. Confirms the notion that photographers are Mga Simpleng Manyak, if not exhibitionists.

Considering that the home computer is open for public viewing, I wouldn't have the gall to pull these images out for editing. There are alternatives though, like putting the words "macho", or
"naked" in my site title. If there was a big price to be the hottest photoblog I would consider posting my birthday suit but you wouldn't guess it was me.

I'll crop my head off.

N.B. Am contemplating to get Tom Ang's DIY erotic home photography book. Materials were the offshoot of a project for The Joy of Sex. I believe in the guy since I bought one of his works. Got this from Nelz' comment in McVie's blog.

Another N.B. I've intentionally unlinked the words referring to the photo sites in situ due to the Trackback scripts that they employ, lest this post be misinterpreted and I accused of walking away from the grapes that may really be sweet in the first place. I was just observing.

No, not the OUT! that you're thinking.

We've moved out of the polluted yet vibrant concrete jungle that is Quezon City in exchange for a quiet and cookie-cutter house in Santa Rosa, Laguna. Everything seemed surreal that my head was spinning until now--closing the deal with the house owner Tuesday of last week, packing boxes by Friday and Saturday, and renting a truck by Sunday. When the strong rain poured when we unpacked last Monday, the proverbial buyers' remorse set in. Not that the roof was leaking, but we realized that we were surrounded by mud, and we have to act fast to pave the driveway before everything gets literally slippery out of our hands. And since we're back to the office, everything inside is still like a giant teenager's room.

Our one-storey house is cute, it looks like a life-size model of the pieces in Monopoly. So cute in fact that we do not know how to disposition some of our big acquisitions during our two-year tenure in the two-storey flat in Project 4. The queen-size bed, dresser and an heirloom narra baul had to go, back to the in-laws where we will spend the weekends in Manila. The Vigan living room set surprisingly fit a fourth of the floor area. The floor tiles had hard water stains and the sink has tilted thirty degrees to the right. And we have, currently, an amiable coexistence with the original owners of the land--termites.

Will be busy in the next few days arranging and re-arranging, hammering, pounding, paving, planting.

Adjusting and dreaming.

...

Something that I feel I have to brag about: Hongkong sunset 2003, magenta filter.

More of my pictures here (It's semi-live but I feel it has improved over the past few months. I'll make a formal announcement later.). Please leave a comment there too.