Home...almost

After a bloody and gruesome week at the on-campus photojournalism class, it's time to go home and try to live a "normal" life again.

Had a short chat with the beautiful people of MindaNews and their plans before heading to the bus terminal. The bus station going to General Santos City is a total chaos. Passengers are trying to get ahead of each other knowing that only one bus company will be plying the Davao-Gen. Santos route.

Yellow Bus Company Inc. is closing down for a month to protest the recent bombing of one of their units that killed one passenger and wounded others.

I got frustrated by the scene, it made me feel like I'm in Metro Manila. What's more frustrating is that am stucked in General Santos because buses will no longer ply the General Santos-Koronadal City route once the sun sets.

Oh well...am home...ALMOST!

Culture of Impunity

Garapalan na! as tatay will always say. He'll slam his hand on the table and he'll take a deep breath.

That's the common reaction I see in him, every time he reads the newspaper and sees journalists, activists and progressive leaders being shot, "salvaged" or abducted in broad daylight. I lost count how many times he slammed our dining table or our door. Not that I got tired counting...it's just too many and it makes me so depressed.

Every time I see him on this situation, I remember Beng Hernandez who was murdered by the military while doing her job in Cotabato Province. Beng is a colleague in College Editors Guild of the Philippines.

The son of the press freedom icon Jose Burgos was never spared. John Jonas Burgos was abducted in broad daylight, in front of so many people. Garapalan na that the very son of the person who paved way for our freedom is now a victim of the same atrocity.

Garapal na talaga! as tatay will always say. Garapal talaga that we counter the culture of impunity with the culture of silence. No non-violent protests...as if nothing happened. We rather stare at our idiot box and watch PBB or the latest in show business. Politics is now the new show business.

Bahala na lang ba? Life goes on...as if our lives will be normal with these things happening.Life never goes on when we live in fear...but death.

At Long Last

Whew! Glad it's over. The longest 10-minute video is done and I can now get some decent sleep.

Oh well, I still have to deal with other matters: Office Monsters! They're the Youtube addicts, the cheesy Friendster freaks and just plain whores and bitches messing with the office bandwidth.

Gwaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh! *mimics meanne" no memo and sanctions can stop these monsters,

Oh well, I should start working on the next "almost-impossible video presentation".

Disaster

In this day and age of technology, things do come so handy. Things do come in an instant. With digital camera and decent inkjet printer we get an instant photo for our album. We can even upload it on the web and create a web album to share to friends and family.

With the digital handicam and a computer, we're just a shoot away from our dream of becoming a filmmaker. With the LCD projector, you can organize a red carpet premiere of your video.

Technology breeds a new culture. That includes people who lost their patience! It's great to have those piece of technology, but since people are not patient enough to read their users' manual...technology is now spelled as DISASTER!

How long will it take for us to read the manual for our new cellphone or our new handicam's manual. Or go online to search for online support and manuals.

Searching for manuals and support is far better than browsing porn and bet that you won't get any spyware and virus from the site.

For weeks now, I am editing my so-called "Longest 10-minute Video" simply because the people who did the shooting never cared to read the manual or at least ask around how to use their new HDV camera.

They shot different formats on a single DV tape!DV and HD in one tape then add the timecode breaks, poor audio and a tight deadline...that's disaster!

My advice is...know your equipment! Be it a cellphone, a laptop, a camera or even your keyboard. Try pressing Alt+F4.
Nyahahahha