It’s The Little Things

Last night I hardly slept. I should have, you know, snored halfway to valhalla, if we  factor in the copious amounts of brandy I had in my system (I came from regular  hangout with friends from way back and needless to say, alcohol and food is a  staple in those parts). Not that I am complaining, I didn’t spend anything. And  these friends know that. These are the same friends that held my hand when I was  about to break from the endless deluge of rejected job applications and failed  business deals. It’s these small handshakes, the little pat on the back that assures  me they have my back. Even a brother whom I bothered too often about my  financial predicaments suddenly sent help, and in the most timely manner,  because I am really going for the loanshark at this time, which my Mayor Street
friends discouraged.

So, short bursts of sleep, and series of graphic books in the works, a life saving  rescue by my brother, and the unflinching loyalty of friends, what else is there to  be thankful for?

It’s the little things.

• Those free Uni Ball Eye pens that went with my purchase of three felt-tip pens at National Bookstore. I was looking for drawing ink but bought a 03, 06 and 08 Uni Pen and didn’t realize till I was home that the freebies were put in my bag.
• Books and audiobooks.
• Pares and Mami carts that provide delicious sustenance for the thrift. The chili and fried garlic added liberally makes it better.
• Gigabytes of data riding tiny USB flashdrives. The 80s saw a Chess Grandmaster square off with Big Blue, a machine that was powered by 1Gb of data that was stored in something as big as a house. Nowadays you could carry the data you need 32 times over on a thumb drive.
• Coffee. No buts about it.
• Street corner laundry service. Even if I try to do my ow washing, sometimes it’s better to have them done, just because I have nowhere to hang the laundry to dry in my current inhabited space.
• Mp3. Digital music. Yes, I long to hear music the way it should be heard, on vinyl, on a phonograph, with the amp and speakers tuned through an extensive equalizer set up and played loud. But I need a home to do that, and in this city living, Mp3 is my saviour. I could write and draw continuously with my favorites playing in the background.
• Mall comfort rooms. Don’t ask.
• Analog mobile phones. Smirk at the idea, but the way I see people griping about battery life and lugging extra powerbanks just so they can browse continuously, I go for the bar phone that lasts a week with a single charge. And don’t get me started about android updates, nor iPhone upgrades.
• Twitter. And no, not for reasons most people think.
• Internet connection. However shitty the service is, still something to be thankful about.
• Blogging. Not for fame, nor profit, but for my sanity.
• Wix!
• Technology in general. Most people take this for granted but growing up with less, access to modern technology is still a joy to behold.
• Movies. In data format. I could marathon The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings as often as I want. And all the films I want to seeover and over.
• My landlady. Her kind heart let me stay even if I can hardly pay the rent. She understands, bless her.

And we could go on and on about the little things that make life worth going through each day, but go list your own.

Going Indie With What The Interwebs Has To Offer

There’s something quite scary and satisfying when you decide to go out on your own and do things your own way. I may have outgrown working in a controlled environment, and when I say controlled environment, it’s the corporate setting – that has a semblance of professional functionality, but the people there are somewhat oblivious of the fact that artists tend to require a different sort of working environment, and not to forget, no never forget, that when artists become professional, it’s really something to behold. You could bash me for wearing sloppy clothes, scraggly facial hair, but you cannot fault me on my work ethics, another thing these young people tend to overlook.

And so, yeah, this time around going full freelance has me visiting my social media accounts, an acquired skill when I did creatives for a mobile app compnay a decade before. It seems I have been taking these things for granted. And yet, I have been revcising my portfolio online.

Because, honestly, when I created this portfolio on Wix , I was just having fun, building my own website, free of course, by not using any theme or template available. True enough, I learn fast. And building my own has taught me about SEOs and layouts and content generation. This blog with WordPress is actually the first blog I started right after I tried with another blogsite. or maybe a couple obscure blogging sites before. No I am not forgetting that Blogspot and Blogger has been around even before Google acquired it, but there are things you set for one particular use.

Now ahy am I blabbing away about these?

Simple.

I’ve gone ronin. Free agent. Freelance.

Indie.

And now is the time to visit all the stuff I have online and use it to build my own virtual office that could help me feed my family. Just look at what my friends has opened for me: illustrating for adult coloring books . And this has been fun, so far. I mean even with Google+ the fun of extending your friends and acquaintances beyond Facebook. which I admit has gone to some sort of cheap thrill.

All I need is a space to work with my creations and just draw till my hands ache. And use my online presence to boost these creations and have my skills avalibale for those who would like to use avail of my services.

This maybe the proper time to shout out gratitudes to

WordPress Wix Blogger/Blogspot Twitter Paper.li Google Google news Digg Retronaut io9

and these are just some of my ragular haunts.

And I better start making my blog posts a regular thing again.

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,200 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 53 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.