Gerry Alanguilan's Blog, page 23

Comic Book Creation Seminar by Gerry Alanguilan

100 Araw ng Komiks (100 Days of Comics) is an online event organized for the purpose of spreading awareness of Philippine Komiks through Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, blogs and other online venues. Click here for the event page on Facebook. The Komikero Comics Journal will be posting everyday for the month of July news, opinions and commentary on aspects of the Philippine comics industry. Today, I will talk about My Comic Book Creation Seminar.

For a long time people have been asking me if they could work as an intern for me or as an apprentice. I've usually declined. It's not that I was hesitant to share my knowledge, but it all comes down to a personal insecurity that what I know isn't really worth shit. Meaning, I myself have still lots to learn about the art of creating comics. I still do. And a lot of the things I do to create my comics is contrary to what a lot of books on comic book creation teaches. I've always been afraid that I might teach people the wrong things.

But it's been pointed out to me (as hands were being slapped on my face) that what I do seems to work, and it's worth teaching. Whatever it is.

So although I still can't take on interns or apprentices, I've decided to hold a one day comic book creation seminar sometime in December 2011. It will be quite intensive, and I will teach all aspects of creating comic books from conception to spending your money after selling your comic book at a comics convention. Although I can't guarantee that you will be able to create comics successfully after the seminar, you will come away with some know how about creating them. Creating comics is, after all, a process that takes a long long time. All I will teach you is how to do it, and guide you through the process of creating comic books. It's up to you to use that knowledge to work, study and make your comic book come alive in the months that would follow.

This would have to be an advance class. I will be teaching the process of creating comics, and I will teach you with the assumption that you already know how to draw. I cannot teach you how to draw. You will have to learn that from other people, or by yourself through books and magazines. So when you attend, don't expect that I will teach you the principles of light and shade or even human anatomy. You need to have a rudimentary knowledge of how to do that because if not, you will most likely be left behind. Learning how to draw takes a LOOONG time and it cannot be taught and learned in just one day.

I'm announcing it this early because in case you do want to attend, and you still don't know how to draw, then you have now until December to learn what you can. I will be announcing the topics I will be discussing soon, but the emphasis of the entire seminar will be comic book storytelling, and that's the process by which you use words and pictures to tell the story in a comic book page.

The catch is, the seminar would be held here in San Pablo City. Please don't ask me to hold one in Manila as it would be very inconvenient for me. I will be providing an air-conditioned venue, as well as snacks and lunch and some reading material. That said, I would have to charge for the seminar. I'm posting it early also to gauge interest. Is anyone out there willing to take the trip to San Pablo to learn comics from me?

100 Araw ng Komiks: Sticking Your Neck Out

100 Araw ng Komiks (100 Days of Comics) is an online event organized for the purpose of spreading awareness of Philippine Komiks through Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, blogs and other online venues. Click here for the event page on Facebook. The Komikero Comics Journal will be posting everyday for the month of July news, opinions and commentary on aspects of the Philippine comics industry. Today, I will talk about Sticking Your Neck Out.

Everyone knows how opinionated I can be, specially with regards to anything that has to do with Philippine comics. Anyone who has read my blog on a regular basis would see that I freak out regularly like a fairly active volcano every time an issue that affects the industry erupts. I honestly do appreciate that you all visit this place to read what I think, and I appreciate comments sent my way (as long as you're not anonymous).

Now a lot of these issues I believe very strongly in. You probably won't catch me debating these issues in person because my speaking brain is actually quite different from my writing brain. They don't work the same way. They completely agree of course, but speaking about it doesn't seem to work the same way as writing about it. So it is here on my blog that I stick my neck out. And I stick my neck out quite far and quite often. I've been warned by some people that I should watch out now that I have said some unflattering things about this or that personality, but that's what sticking your neck out means.

Sometimes, knowing that I stick my neck out as I do, people tell me things, sending me messages via email about certain issues about comics, knowing fully well that it would freak me out and write about it on this blog. I feel like Bud White in LA Confidential. When you tell Bud that this girl has just been beaten by her husband or boyfriend, nobody can stop Bud from beating those guys up. Now it's all well and good to be informed, but once I stick my neck out like that, I would appreciate some support. You know, have my back. And this goes to not on those who informed me, but practically everyone else who feels as strongly as I do.

It's not enough that you send me encouraging messages via email, I'm sorry. It's not enough that you post a comment here on my blog, or post something on Facebook or Twitter or sign a petition. For our message to reach far and wide, there is strength in numbers. Post something on your blog. And don't just post a link to my blog or cut and paste anything I say. Have your own opinion. Stand up for what you say you believe. STICK YOUR NECK OUT.

Posting comments on my blog is great, but it's not enough. We'll only reach those who read THIS blog. Posting on Facebook is not good enough. Posts there are not searchable via search engines like Google. If you post something on your status in February 2009, then it's lost to time. Same with Twitter. Searching on it is problematic. Say what you will about the dominance of social media over blogs, but blogs can be easily searched by Google and anything you post there, no matter how long ago you posted it, will still be searchable today. That's the important thing. So that when people search for a certain comic book industry issue or personality, it's just not my blog or a few people's blog that will turn up. It's all of our blogs.

Because really, sometimes I feel like a damned voice in the wilderness, being egged on by shadowy folk who don't want to show their faces. Come on, it's time to come out of the damned shadows and show them just how many we really are. If I'm the only noisy one, then they'll just say well, there's just one noisy nut job out there and that doesn't really matter. But if there are more noisy nut jobs out there, then it could lead to many more, and then they'll really start to think.

I really am counting on many of you to step up to the plate. Please don't disappoint me.

100 Araw ng Komikis: BANG BANG! The Art of Sigmund Torre

Sigmund Torre is a Filipino illustrator and comic book artist who has worked for Dreamwave, DC and Image, who will be having an art exhibit at the Bigskymind along Broadway Avenue New Manila from July 6 to August 3. Congrats to Sigmund and all the best on your exhibit!

Sigmund Torre: Live Painting. Feb. 12, 2011

Sigmund Torre Online:

Twitter, Facebook, Website.

100 Araw ng Komiks: Last Meow

100 Araw ng Komiks (100 Days of Comics) is an online event organized for the purpose of spreading awareness of Philippine Komiks through Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, blogs and other online venues. Click here for the event page on Facebook. The Komikero Comics Journal will be posting everyday for the month of July news, opinions and commentary on aspects of the Philippine comics industry. Today, I will talk about Last Meow.

Although I've always preferred print over the web, I was never hesitant to try and do new things. And when the idea of doing comics online came about, I tried it as soon as I could. So I uploaded one of my strips from Crest Hut Butt Shop, "Last Meow" on the web on November 2000. You can still read it here: http://www.alanguilan.com/sanpablo/cat.html

And when Scott McCloud, the father of online comics read it and sent me feedback, I was ecstatic. On the subject matter of the comic strip itself, "Crest Hut Butt Shop" was supposed to have been short autobiographical strips that I've wildly exaggerated for comedic effect. However, once in a while I would do these strips that were straightforwardly honest and sincere. "Last Meow" was one of them. I just had lost a cat and for someone who loves pets as much as I did, I dealt with the loss by creating a comic strip about it.

100 Araw ng Komiks: Believe It… OR ELSE!

100 Araw ng Komiks (100 Days of Comics) is an online event organized for the purpose of spreading awareness of Philippine Komiks through Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, blogs and other online venues. Click here for the event page on Facebook. The Komikero Comics Journal will be posting everyday for the month of July news, opinions and commentary on aspects of the Philippine comics industry. Today, I will talk about Believe It… OR ELSE!.

Several years ago, I was asked to contribute to a comics magazine called TOPAK!, edited by Stanley Chi. I thought about doing a spoof of "Ripley's Believe It… OR NOT!" by coming up with some ridiculous "facts" and passing them off as real. It seemed like a real cool idea to have as a regular thing, so I just might do that when I'm not doing anything else. But as of now, only two pages were ever made and published. Topak! might still be available at some branches of National Book Store and Powerbooks.

Click for larger images.

Elmer Wins at the Prix Asie-ACBD 2011 (UPDATED!)

Elmer had been nominated for the Prix Asie-ACBD 2011, an award given to the Best Asian Comic Book published in France, along with other comic books such as Kamui Den by Sanpei Shirato, La Plaine du Kantô by Kazuo Kamimura, Le Voyage de Ryu by Shôtarô Ishinomori, and Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura, Kurokawa. Elmer won in an awards ceremony held last night in Paris.

I received an email from my publisher with the photo above and the following message:

"The award ceremony took place this evening at the Japan Expo which is a huge convention taking place near Paris and dedicated to everything related to Japanese and Asian entertainment (anime, manga, manwha, video games etc.)

There were awards for best anime, best feature film, best video games, best shojo manga, shonen manga etc.. And the award for the best asian comic book of the year, given by the ACBD which is the Association of Comic Book Journalists. This is the fifth year they are giving this award to the Best Asian Book of the Year, out of the 1500 (one thousand and five hundred, yes) or so Asian comic books published in a year in France.

Elmer won and the journalist which handed me the award praised about the book for a couple of minutes. You will find enclosed a picture of the award (you will see that I don't have anymore French copies at home, so I've used your edition), I will send you the object itself next week."

I was so ecstatic when I heard about it last night that I couldn't sleep. I think I will celebrate today with a Zinger sandwich at KFC.

News at the ACBD Website.

VIDEO!

Elmer Wins at the Prix Asie-ACBD 2011

Elmer had been nominated for the Prix Asie-ACBD 2011, an award given to the Best Asian Comic Book published in France, along with other comic books such as Kamui Den by Sanpei Shirato, La Plaine du Kantô by Kazuo Kamimura, Le Voyage de Ryu by Shôtarô Ishinomori, and Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura, Kurokawa. Elmer won in an awards ceremony held last night in Paris.

I received an email from my publisher with the photo above and the following message:

"The award ceremony took place this evening at the Japan Expo which is a huge convention taking place near Paris and dedicated to everything related to Japanese and Asian entertainment (anime, manga, manwha, video games etc.)

There were awards for best anime, best feature film, best video games, best shojo manga, shonen manga etc.. And the award for the best asian comic book of the year, given by the ACBD which is the Association of Comic Book Journalists. This is the fifth year they are giving this award to the Best Asian Book of the Year, out of the 1500 (one thousand and five hundred, yes) or so Asian comic books published in a year in France.

Elmer won and the journalist which handed me the award praised about the book for a couple of minutes. You will find enclosed a picture of the award (you will see that I don't have anymore French copies at home, so I've used your edition), I will send you the object itself next week."

I was so ecstatic when I heard about it last night that I couldn't sleep. I think I will celebrate today with a Zinger sandwich at KFC.

100 Araw ng Komiks: WASTED, The Comic Book That Saved My Life

100 Araw ng Komiks (100 Days of Comics) is an online event organized for the purpose of spreading awareness of Philippine Komiks through Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, blogs and other online venues. Click here for the event page on Facebook. The Komikero Comics Journal will be posting everyday for the month of July news, opinions and commentary on aspects of the Philippine comics industry. Today, I will talk about Wasted.

I did it for the girl. More accurately, I did it because of the girl.

It was a break up that, I felt back in 1993, completely devastated me. It was one of those moments when a person literally changes overnight from one person to another. It had been my ambition to draw superheroes for Marvel Comics. The problem was, I was in a completely different profession. I was practicing Architecture and was convinced that it was what I wanted for the rest of my life.

And a girl just had to complicate things.

I had a crush on this girl since Grade 3. I was 8 years old. I met her again just a few days before I took my board examinations for Architecture in July 1990. And I was hit pretty hard. She was leaving for America a few days after that, and won't be back for a long time. Throughout the next year or so I considered my options. Even though I hadn't even considered it in my life, I thought of moving to America just so I could be with this girl. I knew Architecture won't bring me there, but perhaps my hobby could. It was then I decided to turn my life long hobby into a new career. As soon as I began practicing, I realized it was what I really wanted to do, and not Architecture. It was one of the last missing pieces of my life.

It was difficult, starting over. In 1992 I was 24 years old. I should have been working but I was home drawing, retraining myself in a completely different profession. I applied at the Joe Kubert School for Graphic Art and was accepted, only to find out that they did not give scholarships to non-Americans. I could not afford it otherwise. I started getting jobs with local comic book companies, getting drawing, and sometimes even writing jobs at Mass Media Publications. I joined Lakan, and was inspired to create better work through interaction with other artists. I got rejection letters left and right from Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image and other companies, but I didn't let it stop me. All the things I did at the time were for one single purpose: getting to America so I can be with my girl.

But for various reasons I could not possibly say, she broke up with me in July 1993, right in the middle of a Green Lantern sample script that late DC editor Neal Pozner had sent to me to draw. And I just quite literally stopped. The break up was something so far from my mind that it literally stupefied me for weeks. And when I finally realized what had happened, I became self destructive. My friends at the time, whoever of them was left, would know how destructive, bitter and angry I had become. I stopped drawing for an entire year. I just stayed home doing nothing. I walked. Grew my hair. Hung around. My parents prevailed upon me to return to Architecture, but I just spent all the money I made drinking and eating. I didn't last, and went back home. I knew I was in big trouble. Instead of getting over it, I felt it getting worse. I needed an outlet.

It was then I decided to channel all that anger and bitterness and hate into an 8 page comic book. At first I called it "Berzerk!", but after listening to some Who records, I decided to retitle it "WASTED". It was completely different from the fluffy conventional stuff I had drawn before the break up. I began with just one panel. Writing and drawing as I went along. And then I did another panel, and another, and within a day or so, I completed one page. The first page was quite literally a retelling of all the angry conversations we have had right before the end. I didn't hold back. I swore if I needed to, and drew nudity if I felt like it. I didn't have any reservations. After all, I thought, nobody was going to be reading this but me. After a week or so, I completed 8 pages of what I eventually thought would be Chapter 1 of a much larger story.

After completing those 8 pages, I felt an enormous kind of relief. It was as if I expunged a lot of anger that I felt and threw them all into those pages, indelibly imprinting those drawings and words with my emotions. After a while, I thought well, I thought I'd share this with a few friends. I photocopied the pages, made a mini comic book out of it, and sent several copies of it via mail. I was nervous about what my friends would think. It was so completely NOT me. And yet at the time, it WAS me, if I was being honest with myself.

Surprisingly, I got some shocked, albeit positive responses. And they wanted to read more. A copy was passed on over to Budjette Tan (who I have yet to meet), who wrote to me asking if he could include Wasted in his comic book "Comics 101″. I thought about that. Sharing Wasted with friends was one thing, but sharing them with strangers… a LOT of strangers is another. I still felt paranoid about the reaction that it would get, concerned perhaps that people will hate me for it. A few days later, I realized I didn't care and sent the pages to Budjette.

Even though I thought I didn't care, I actually did, and I continued to be paranoid about how people will react. And yet inexplicably, the feedback I started to get was really encouraging. People liked it, and wanted to read more. I then continued creating more issues and began selling copies through the mail, and through various comic book stores in Manila. I started to get letters from all sorts of people. LONG letters telling me their own stories, sharing their own grief and pain. Through creating Wasted, and through interaction with people who read it and got it, I slowly got over my own pain and anger. I stopped being self destructive. I regained my self confidence and my will to really live again.

And more importantly, I gained something new: my own passion for creating comics. It stopped being about another person, and it became a personal ambition. I took comics seriously because of the girl, but now that she was gone, I realized I loved comics on my own and I didn't need anyone to push me to want it.

Reading Wasted again today, I'm quite literally shocked at the places I went to while creating it. I can't see myself doing anything like it again, or even go to those places again. I read it and I can literally feel the anger seething between the words and drawings and I'm a bit taken aback that it was me who had done it.

Today I'm happily married. I'm still friends with the girl and we communicate like maybe once or twice a year. I don't think she has read Wasted yet.

As a print entity, Wasted has gone through numerous editions:

1. The original 8 issue photocopied series, July 1994-July 1996

2. 8 issues compiled into two photocopied volumes, July 1996

3. The first compilation (Alamat), February 1998

4. Serialization in PULP Magazine, 2000

5. Final Edition, published by PULP Magazine, 2004

All printed editions are now sold out, but Wasted can be read completely online at the link below:

Wasted Online

http://wastedonline.blogspot.com

There are plans to reprint Wasted late 2012.

Wasted Page at Facebook.

100 Araw ng Komiks: Flashpoint and Sterling Paper

100 Araw ng Komiks (100 Days of Comics) is an online event organized for the purpose of spreading awareness of Philippine Komiks through Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, blogs and other online venues. Click here for the event page on Facebook. The Komikero Comics Journal will be posting everyday for the month of July news, opinions and commentary on aspects of the Philippine comics industry. Today, I will talk about Flashpoint, and Sterling Paper.

The very beginnings of the modern Philippine Independent Komiks Industry can be traced to this comic book. Flashpoint #1, published in January 1994 by Straight Lines International, owned by Sterling Paper, had creative people who would eventually become to be some of the biggest movers and shakers of the Philippine comics industry, including Carlo Vergara (who went on to create ZsaZsa Zaturnnah) and David Hontiveros (Pelicula, Bathala). I thought the work was really raw, inconsistent and rough. But I think that can only be expected for a bunch of young creators just beginning to learn their craft. But here and there were sparks of potential and each page displayed a remarkable sense of passion for the medium.

Today we all know how brilliant these creators have become, having come a long way from Flashpoint more than 25 years ago.

The fact that Sterling Paper was behind the publication of this comic book is interesting, considering the events of the past several years.

Flash forward to 2007. The old komiks industry has faded. Carlo J. Caparas was going around the country on a Komiks Caravan spreading awareness of komiks, talking about the "revival of komiks", perhaps completely unaware that for the past 23 years, a generation of comic book creators younger than him were already reviving komiks in their own way, self publishing, and self distributing. In that 23 years Philippine comics have evolved and moved on from the old formats and old sensibilities. They were holding comic book conventions several times a year, promoting and selling comics, without the benefit of big publishers, completely out of a sense of self reliance and independence.

Many people were pining for the good old days of komiks when they could be found at every street corner, every sari sari store, all across the country. The older creators were pining for the days of Atlas and GASI, big time publishers who gave them their jobs to create comics. But with all the big publishers gone, no one is there to hire them, and no one was there to print and distribute their comics. To get an industry like we had in the old days going, what people didn't fully understand was it required an enormous amount of money. It didn't require a million pesos, it required millions of pesos. Think about it. You needed money to hire people to write, draw, color, edit the comics, and that includes an renting an office to work from, and hiring a staff to do the production work. You need to buy all the office equipment including chairs, desks, computers, scanners, desktop printers, and so forth. You need to pay the utilities to run your office (water, electricity, telephone). You need a printing press and people to run it. Supplies like paper and ink to keep the presses running. You needed vehicles and drivers and workmen to move the comics. And for your comics to reach all corners of the country, you need solid contacts with the distributor cartels in the country and you need the cash to keep that distribution line well oiled. All this has to be in place just to bring an inexpensive comic book to your sari sari store in Jolo, Baguio, Iloilo or Batanes.

Bottom line: You need tens of millions of pesos to revive the Komiks industry on a national scale.

The average Philippine Independent comic book creator has how much personal money in his pocket to publish his comics? 500 pesos? 1000 pesos?

So you can only imagine the frustration one feels when morons online who think they know what they're talking about rant online about how these new comics are too expensive and can't be bought everywhere.

The independent creators, let me reiterate, pay for the publication of their comics out of their own pocket. They don't have the millions of pesos required to mount a nationwide revival of komiks. They do the best they can, out of their own initiative. The fact that the independent movement is still alive after 25 years, and is still growing today, is only an indication that this is a little industry that isn't going away.

So, in 2007, the independent creators have been at it for the last 20 or so years, doing the best they can, and yet they have been successful in creating some of the most interesting and most significant comic books in Philippine comics' modern history. But they lack the money to go widespread and nationwide.

Carlo J. Caparas was also in the same boat. CJC was one of the biggest names of the old industry, and in 2007 he launched on a massive media campaign with the hopes of reviving Philippine komiks. He did this by going on a "Komiks Caravan", and later putting together a Komiks Congress. However, like the Philippine Independent creator, he too did not have the millions to actually start publishing comic books. All he did was well, talk about it. And unless he came up with his own money (like we did) to publish his comics, talk is all he will ever do.

And this is when Sterling Paper re-entered the picture.

Sterling Paper once again wanted to publish comics, and they had millions of pesos to do it. By all intents and purposes, this was exactly what everyone was waiting for. The first people Sterling Paper contacted to help them in their venture was Mango Comics, headed by Mr. Boboy Yonzon, who was then currently publishing Mwahaha! and Mango Jam. Mr. Yonzon in turn, recommended me as one of the creative people. Sterling even sent over a representative to my home here in San Pablo so we could talk about and plan how we are going to go about it. Their plan was staggering. Regular comic books will be released and will be sold very inexpensively (10 pesos a copy) on a national level. I would invite many other comic book creators of the independent industry, and was excited by the fact that they would be equally hiring veterans to work on other stories as well. I came away from the meeting so excited that I drew an online comic strip the minute they left.

Click for larger image.

Time passed and I wondered what had happened. I am not fully aware exactly how events transpired, but all I know from my end is that Mango Comics and I were no longer involved in creating the comic books, and Carlo J. Caparas was now creative director. And CJC opted for an almost fully veteran-created line of comic books, created with the same storytelling sensibilities of the old komiks industry. Except for one or two exceptions, the younger comic book creators were completely shut out, as we were shut out during the Komiks Congress, the supposed congress organized to study how Philippine Komiks can be revived, which became anything but that.

Isn't it a wonder that the Sterling Comics project failed spectacularly? As a fan, I appreciated the amazing art by some artists, including Hal Santiago who really gave it his all, but in general, I found it difficult to connect to the material. It felt like reading old komiks, which spoke nothing to who I am today as a Filipino.

Imagine Darna as reinvisioned by Arnold Arre and myself. Imagine TRESE by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo. Imagine ZsaZsa Zaturnnah by Carlo Vergara and Kiko Machine by Manix Abrera. These could have been the kind of stories Filipinos would have read nationwide (and inexpensively) had Mango Comics remained with the project. Sterling Paper had the millions to make this possible. But I guess it was not meant to be.

It's a lesson that future publishers ought to keep in mind. You can't keep ignoring us, pretending we are not here. Even now, there are efforts to revive the industry without involving us who have done comics for the last 20 years. Even today there are people who believe that it was Carlo Caparas who revived komiks in 2007, when in reality, it was Sterling Paper. You need to involve the younger creators, because if you don't, any effort you may have will surely end in disaster.

And what is Carlo J. Caparas doing now with regards to "reviving komiks"? I have no idea.

But the Independent Komiks creators are still at it. They are still spending their own money to publish their own comics. Other fans are still organizing events across the country. In July 16 is a comic book convention in Baguio. In November is the 7th Annual Komikon. Carlo Vergara is on his way to creating a new ZsaZsa Zaturnnah Book. David Hontiveros is continuing to write Bathala. Budjette Tan is creating more Trese. Arnold Arre and I are going head with our Darna plans (and a project of our own). The same is true for hundreds more creators who continue to do Philippine comics today.

If you would like to meet some of them, click here.

The First Baguio City Comics Convention

Are you a komiks fan? Are you living in Baguio City, frustrated that you can't come to Manila to attend the comic book events held there? Then this ought to be good news! The first comic book convention in Baguio City will be held on July 16, 2011 at the Baguio City National High School Auditorium from 10am to 8pm. More info on this event here: http://greepocomicgroup.blogspot.com/2011/05/first-comic-convention-in-baguio-city.html

I usually support events like this by attending, as I did the Cebu Comics Convention last year, out of my own pocket. It's my way of being part of spreading the awareness of locally made comics to a new generation of Filipinos largely unaware of our existence. When the organizers of the Baguio convention began talking about organizing such an event, I said I would attend. I had assumed it wouldn't happen for several months, perhaps up to 6 months, which would give me enough time to schedule my activities, as I did the Cebu Comics Convention. For that event, I was informed around 8 months in advance. That gave me time to adjust my work schedule, set aside some money, just so I could be prepared and ready.

So it was quite a surprise that the Baguio convention was to be held around a month and a half after I was informed about it. I wondered how they could pull off organizing an event in so short a time. Even we in the Komikero group took three months to organize the first San Pablo Comics Festival and it was harrowing. But it's possible, I'm sure. But unfortunately, it was not enough time for me to prepare, specially since I would leave for San Diego a few days before the event. I fully expect to be dealing with inking deadlines before leaving for San Diego, and to have a trip so far away immediately before that would be physically wear me out. Travelling by bus to Baguio from San Pablo and back so quickly is no joke. They did offer to change the date of the event just so I could attend, but I would still be out of the country by then. So I just said not to move it on my account. If their event has to happen in July, then it has to happen in July.

It's such a shame that I couldn't be there. I'm pretty sure it's going to be an awesome event. I'm such a fan of the people going there. Sometimes I wish I could be like Dr. Manhattan where I could be at two places at once. I'm just writing this down because they might still be holding out some hope that I could attend, but as I explained, such a trip would be physically difficult for me. Perhaps on their second year, I could go, of course, as long as I have enough time to prepare.