First Inspiration Challenge: Chair

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Q: "If given a chance to go back in time just for one month, without any memory of being from the future, what year/age would you prefer to be? Why? And, what would you do?"

A: If I would be given this chance, I'd choose to be 14 again.

The first major concert I have been to was a year before this, when Sonic Youth came to Manila. And I can't imagine myself listening to other genres of music from that time on. Those were the days that were both exciting and eye-opening. I would not prefer innocence and simplicity of life for a month. If I should go back, whoa! What a way to spend a month from such an adventurous year.

Around that year, Bram Stroker's Dracula (the movie) was so popular among my friends that all of us were mystically drawn to either Keanu Reeves or Dracula, where I prefer to be fond of the latter (lots of debate then). This was the time when we had school plays and I was the head of the props and music department.

The time when I was first invited to go on a weekend mountain hike, with bonfires, marshmallows and waking up by the sunrise over the mountain; Going to school fairs and yes, sneaking at concerts in universities. Pretending to be legal aged (well, never successful then) but thinking of the craziest ideas just to be able to buy drinks that were prohibited for us that time.

That time, when we experimented on our talents, musically impaired or not, artistically frustrated or not. And, that’s the time when we conceptualized an "underground newspaper". Yes, another reason to sneak behind our teachers.

So much to do for a month tho, but yes we did it then, and if I were to go back and experience it all over, I'd be glad to.

* . * . *

Now, thanks to those who answered this question too. (See all comments in full)

Some of us prefer to stay at the present. Especially for this challenge coz, one cannot bring along the memory of being from the future, like Ambres, Fotolinks and Floots, who prefers to just cherish their memories from the past. Another one who'd stay at the present is Irvine, who technically, can't go back to the past. He is in his wonder years, innocent and bit naive, but hey, arent children suppose to be like that?

Those who have tapped their inner child and would love to pay a visit for a month to the past:

Micheal	age: 4 1/2 special reason: to live in a magical, sometimes scary, always exciting world, where everything generates a million questions and every day is an adventure fondest memory: "Curious George"
Isay	age: 6 years old fondest memory: flying kites with her two younger sisters and siblings special reason: life was simple then
Diety	age: 8 years old fondest memory: running and screaming with her brothers and friends special reason: sugar canes
brother nanching	age: fifth grade fondest memory: The time she "embraced boyish ways" but have "terribly lots of crush". (lol) And biking around the village collecting newspapers and bottles for a school paper drive. special reason: being a member of "macho brothers" and autograph book signed by her crushes (which she gave the names)
Willie Baronet	time: before August, 2003 special reason:be with his mom again, hug and tell her how much he love her. And say goodbye the way he wanted
Trixi	time: childhood special reason: because she have very few memories from then, to understand things and why people act the way they do

And for the thoughtful passers-by who haven't made up their minds yet, or chooses to remain in between, are AscenderRisesAbove and Kim Carney.

The good thing here, is that when you go back to the future, you will bring along the memory that you went back for a month..

Thanks for sharing!


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note: Photos "Be Right Back" and "chair train master and his assistant" are my entries for Inspiration Challenge. Thanks Odie for inviting me!

B&W Photo Challenge: Religion

Race to the Sky

in the abyss of forsaken thoughts
i once lived.
swam in emtpiness
and devoured hatred.
i cling to endless hopes
arid oceans
and unsparing deceit.
and somewhere within
a faint light and complete darkness
i scream.

in the struggle of undrowning myself
i lost grip.
for a long time
i was denched in sorrow
dying, desperate
to seek release,
to undauntedly leave,
to see that there's something more...

now i stop -
to recall that interim
when i forgot to look up
and dream.


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photo note: This is my entry for Black and White Photo Challenge. Please click to view in Flickr, or see the full size.

Last call to last week's challenge: to those who would like to go back to the past, when you were a kid, or any year, read more>>

Illo Friday: Robot

Are we alone?

stare into the blank light below
signs calling out to what's beyond
is there something out there?
is there someone out there?

sometimes we wish there would be
as to escape the mess we made here
but is there really somewhere else to go?
a better place, should we even hope?

moving about we travel
we gain thought and more to wonder
but are we sticking to one path, one routine?
do we seek answers to questions with no meaning?

reopen the past to make changes
recreate history all over
is there a key to the universe?
is there something we have yet to discover?

or are we just lost
in our own demise
and selfish consumption?

We are the robots of our time.




"Crossing the Universe"
700 x 450
MS Paint



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illo note: Click image to see it in Flickr, or view full size.
Visit another crop circle illo i made, for the subject Lost

Open Challenge: "if given a chance to go back in time just for one month, without any memory of being from the future, what year/age would you prefer to be? Why? And, what would you do?"

Everyone is invited to share their thoughts, please post here

Photo Friday: Golden

"Music is a secret exercise in arithmetic of the soul,
unaware of its act of counting."
-Gottfried Leibniz



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note: My entry for this week's Photo Friday.
Photo shot months ago in Cavite.
Click photo to see it on Flickr or see full size.

Originally planned to write a poem, or something about the friendly debate I had this morning about some questionable passages in the Bible. But now, as I am listening to classical music (Bach, Pollini, Koopman), while looking at this.. I just like to leave my mind blank. And just listen.

B&W Photo Challenge: Friends

Looking at children enjoying playing with each other, I sometimes think how fun it would be being a child again. Having that innocence, everything prepared for you, and no big worries. But then again, you have to go through all those years again to be where you are now. Do you think going back would lessen your present burdens?

Being an adult, you have to do everything, including things that makes you worry so much you feel that either time is not enough for one day, or time is too slow. Adults have bigger problems to solve, and more perilous decisions to make. Someone *.* told me that "as we all know, children have problems of their own" Yes, and adults are never rid of them too. But the question is, which of these are we truly capable of dealing with?

Just a thought.


So, if given a chance to go back in time just for one month, without any memory of being from the future, what year/age would you prefer to be? Why? And, what would you do?

My answers later.

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photo note: "Circle of Innocence", is my entry for Black & White Photo Challenge.

See this week's Photo Friday and Illo Friday entries too.

Illo Friday: Spotted

splash, dream, float

when you wake
you're still in a dream
you want to unwake
but you don't want to leave

splash, dream, float...

you come back
wanting to see more
wanting to get hold
and again and again

it doesnt stop
you can almost reach
you can almost feel
as it grabs you tight

you drown in heat
whatever you do
you float in desire
you won't ever let go

you got lost in
slow thundering space
you found perfection
wrapped in the freezing sun

and you taste it
and you lay on sand
you feel the waves come
a melting serene stance

splash, dream, float...

now you take oath
to never ever leave
and here you stayed.

forever.




"The Perfect Spot"
900 x 500
MS Paint



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note: Ok, im listening too much to My Bloody Valentine...
Made the illo while listening to their album "Isn't Anything" on repeat mode.

Please click image to view this at Flickr. Or see full size.

Happy Easter everyone!

Photo Friday: Full

Sometimes, we just need to dive in...

Take that biggest leap you'd never imagined you'd take.
And hold on to the thought that nothing, yes, 'Nothing'..
Nothing is impossible!



"Hesitation of any kind is a sign of mental decay in the young,
of physical weakness in the old." - Oscar Wilde

Will you dive in with me, and take the leap? *.*


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note: made some color adjustments to this entry. The separation of the colorless from the colorful represents what may be lost dreams and dreams to be fulfilled. Now the question is, how many should be left colorless?

my entry for photofriday

update: also my entry for Thursday Challenge: Circle

Illo Friday: Speed

When time stops

slow paces have come between
the sunset and time
any movement is a memory
that engraves itself on sand

a fast race of motion
one have no power to control
lost in a new dimension
holding on to one's own soul

tracing the sands that linger
that was blown off by the wind
is one alone in the struggle
of a hollow tone, a half beat?

she cried to the endless sky
to fast forward to a certain time
when there are no more transcendance
when solitude is not being alone

then fearlessly they stepped forward
in lightspeed be blown
as sacrifices be waged
and when time stops -
it shall gather no past
it shall gather no age.




760 x 560
MS Paint

B&W Photo Challenge: Architecture

Open, Wide, Space

with wide gazes into the other side
a new beginning came to arise
i wake in the midst of not knowing
i tremble to the unglittered enkindling

in side pannels we curve the distance
making one's own valiant direction
as the heights of your satin stare
flow within the grounds of mist air

i wrap the jealousy of the night
as it parts the ways of our continuous flight
to blown wishes that cascades the tale
and hides all that who seeks to dare


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notes: This is my second week for Black & White Photo Challenge. And I was having second thoughts on what to enter. This, or "stand up in reverie"

Photo taken some months ago, poem written half sleepy, half floating, probably inspired by something that happened today *.*

B&W Photo Challenge: Cloudy

Once the realization is accepted that even between
the closest human beings infinite distances continue,
a wonderful living side by side can grow,
if they succeed in loving the distance between them
which makes it possible for each to see
the other whole against the sky.
- Rainer Maria Rilke


   view another photo i took same day


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note: This is my first entry for B&W Photo Challenge. It's a smaller group than PhotoFriday, but equally amazing entries. Having the topic "cloudy" I just can't resist to take up the challenge. I know mine is not as great as the groups' but still, here goes one of my early photos tuned up a little for a Black and White effect.

Discovered this group thru Aravis. Thanks! (please visit her entry)

And here's another quote to ponder on...

Anyone who sees and paints a sky green and fields blue ought to be sterilized. - Adolf Hitler

Illo Friday: Spring

it began with two empty buds,
colorless, plain, almost dull.


they started gazing at the sky
and stood still, quietly standing by


through the horizon one blossomed
while the other pushed the pace in motion


then they both bloomed in full extent
two souls filling up what's once an emptiness


a pasture of green they now paint
awaiting to make that leap the right moment


and dream inseparably they went
for every bright beginning shall spring with no end...


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Lesson learned: Nothing is impossible. One just have to dream and hold on to that dream. And everything shall be alright.

please click the last image to view full size.