a picture a day: october 2010

the tenth month of my project 365. it's an open ended project, anything goes, but with one rule: at least a picture a day... well, sort of. after 9 months of faithfully observing that rule, the streak finally broke. 3 pictureless days for october, and it goes downhill from there till december.

i guess it reached the point where it became too much of a chore to find or make a compelling picture everyday. and with all the clients and projects from my day job screaming for my attention, i had to make a choice.

interestingly, the officemates whose pictures i've taken here have all resigned. hmmm...

for the january 2010 album of my project 365, click here.
for the february 2010 album of my project 365, click here.
for the march 2010 album of my project 365, click here.
for the april 2010 album of my project 365, click here.
for the may 2010 album of my project 365, click here.
for the june 2010 album of my project 365, click here.
for the july 2010 album of my project 365, click here.
for the august 2010 album of my project 365, click here.
for the september 2010 album of my project 365, click here.

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2010.10.01 tricycle driver on overdrive, cabancalan, mandaue city



2010.10.02 a survivor



2010.10.03 alcoy, cebu



2010.10.04 the unfortunate case of a cabancalan tricycle driver who, in his attempt to escape from the citom, ran over the motorcycles that the citom used to barricade his escape route back to mandaue. the police arrested him, i think on the grounds of avoiding arrest, damage to government property, and the endangerment of citom personnel.

it's easy to blame the driver, who made an eggheaded decision in trying to escape from the citom. but this is also a case of government policy being insensitive to the plight of the little people.

you see, one end of the route of cabancalan tricycle drivers (who are registered only in mandaue city) reaches into the territory of cebu city. at the start of mike rama's term, the citom implemented this policy of not allowing cabancalan tricycle drivers to enter cebu city, which affected both the tricycle drivers (because they could no longer pick up the passengers from the end of cabancalan who are going to mandaue) and the tricycle riding public (because they now had to walk a considerable distance from the border of mandaue city to get to the talamban jeepney routes and vice versa). but apparently, the cebu city government doesn't care about any of this.

but there are some renegade tricycle drivers who still go into cebu city just to get the passengers getting of from talamban and going to mandaue, with considerable risk. if caught, the citom will impound their tricycles, which is probably their sole source of income, and they'll have to pay a fine of somewhere around 10,000 pesos to have their tricycles released. thus, the motivation of the tricycle driver to try and escape.

i'm not sure though if citom still implements this policy, but it's unfortunate that neither citom nor cebu city hall were circumspect in the creation of their policies to begin with.



2010.10.05 the street photo as self portrait, near tesda, lahug, cebu city



2010.10.06 one can get so caught up with work that the world around is reduced to a passing blur, hiway, mandaue city



2010.10.08 hubris, hiway, mandaue city



2010.10.09 a quick trip to the mountains



2010.10.10 the warrior is a child :) cosplayers taking a break at the food court, ayala center, cebu city



2010.10.11 lightning



2010.10.13 crossing



2010.10.14 going home, at the end of a long day



2010.10.15 a rainy day



2010.10.16 vandalism



2010.10.17 another rainy day



2010.10.18 a reminder, at the office restroom



2010.10.19 the dilemma of a rainy day: to stay inside the office, comfortably dry but stressed out of one's mind, or to go outside, free but soaking wet



2010.10.20 after the rain



2010.10.21 si arian



2010.10.22 a picture of my sanity



2010.10.23 waiting



2010.10.24 yet another blurry day



2010.10.25 barangay elections, near maguikay elementary school, mandaue city



2010.10.26



2010.10.27 on sick leave, but still working



2010.10.28 chapel



2010.10.29 inside, outside



2010.10.30 hubog

my 7th published article

my 5th on the inquirer :)

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20110113-314144/World-outside

same observation as before, it sounds different after the inquirer's editors did their thing...

here's my original version:

http://chroniclesofadisturbedmind.blogspot.com/2010/12/inside-looking-out.html

broken

the sudden sound of breaking glass
the silence broken by this breaking
only for the night to gather the shards
the silence whole and unbroken once again

buhat mao'y pasulti-on

the unfinished phase II of the alcoy public market, alcoy, cebu.



not sure if this building is already done (photo was taken october 2010), but gloria's smiling face says that the target date was supposed to be july 2009.

not everyone can have fun

after classes, taken near st. catherine's academy, carcar, cebu, june 2010

happy family

taken at cebu business park, in front of the still under construction insular life building, october 2009

self service

i didn't really see it until months later while going through my old pictures, but there it was, the self service sign begging to be read while my nephew also begged (and bugged) his mom for a treat he noticed on the bakeshop's shelves. taken in tacloban, february 2010.

the singing old man and the little girl

it's this kind of picture that reminds me of what drew me to photography: capturing all those little moments, the obscure dramas, the passing interactions, the slices of everyday life happening out there all the time, that nobody would really know is out there if not for the fact that someone had been paying attention.



and the unintended details too: the expression on the old man's face, his slipperless left foot, the few coins at his feet, and the way the little girl seems to be the only one listening...



wouldn't the world be a more beautiful place if we had all opened our eyes a bit more?

photo taken somewhere on colon st., cebu city, november 2009

inside, looking out

my existence these past few months has largely been limited to going to work, going home, going to work, going home, going to work, so on and so forth. even weekends and holidays, much to my frustration.

i work at IT park. and IT park, as most cebuanos know, is a place unto itself. it doesn't feel like cebu at all. echoes of effortlessly american sounding chatter bounce off the walls of the various high rises sprouting all over the place like grass. a porsche or bmw parked outside some trendy new bar or cafe is no longer such an extraordinary thing to behold. and strutting about in their power suits or fashionably casual outfits, specimens of the local subspecie of yuppie go about their day tapping away at their shiny new iPhones or hammering at their macbooks, while wide eyed envelope wielding job seekers stare at these curious creatures, in the hope that they too become part of the herd.

there is an air of possibility to the place. it feels like one huge launch pad, and we are all astronauts headed for the moon (or sinners going to hell, depending on how you look at it).

meanwhile, home is as it should be: home, a shell to retreat in, my own psychological space to shut out the rest of the world, a place away from all the cursing bosses and the horde of irate clients screaming for my head and the dozen or so ticking time bombs that is my job to juggle around before they explode: the projects that i have to manage.

so goes a typical day in the life of kenneth diaz: i go to work, a project explodes in my face, i go home. i go to work, an important client does her best impression of the queen bitch from hell, i go home. i go to work, the boss roars "what f*cking holiday is monday?", i go home.

it's been stressful, to say the least. but here's the thing with stress: when you feel like everything around you is falling apart, when all you get is one disappointment after another, then it becomes too easy to reach the conclusion that the universe has singled you out (and only you) for punishment, that your pain (and no one else's) is all there is to the world.

there's nothing like a quick trip outside to prove that all wrong, though.

2 weeks ago, i took friday off from work, and jumped on the chance to jog on one of my favorite routes, from our house all the way to the 2 mactan bridges.

i'd made good progress. i was now on the last stretch of my run on the 2nd mactan bridge when i saw something odd: a woman squatting on the road. you see, the 2nd mactan bridge has separate lanes for pedestrians, and she was squatting at the edge of the main road with the cars and trucks and buses zipping past her. she was wearing a brown blouse that had seen better days, a long green skirt, a piece of cloth wrapped around her head. and layed out in front of her, were 3 big grey sacks.

this i didn't really mind, until she stood up. for a split second her butt was exposed as she quickly raised her skirt to put her underwear back on. she had just taken a pee... on the side of the road... for all the world to see. she then stood up, dutifully put one sack on her head, took the other 2 sacks, one in each hand, and walked quietly along.

"yes, i am, apparently, still in the philippines," i thought.

i finish my jog and cool off, then head to one of the sari-sari stores near the park at the foot of the 2nd mactan bridge to buy myself some water.

at the sari-sari store, while sipping on a cold bottle of water and waiting for my change, an old man comes up beside me. you could almost read his life story written on his graying hair and his wrinkled face, but it was his eyes that spoke most eloquently: he had the saddest eyes in the world.

the tindera came back with my change, then she asked the old man, "unsa imo noy?" (can i help you sir?)

as if he too had a big grey sack resting on his head, the old man very slowly shook his head. the tindera shrugged and went away. the old man, with his one hand resting on the counter, stood there and eyed the inside of the store the same way moses, after 40 years in the desert, must have looked over the promised land that he'd been forbidden to enter, from the top of the mountain where he was going to die: so near and yet so far, far way.

i fled. i was still catching my breath after a rather punishing jog, and i wanted no part of it. so i fled.

i found an empty bench at the park, with a view of the bridge and the passing ships, and cooled off there. to my left was one bench with a couple, and to my right, another bench with 2 uniformed women who i couldn't help but hear chatting about the sad trajectory of their lives (involving unfaithful boyfriends, troubled siblings, and the neverending struggle for money). another pair of women approached them.

one was an old woman with a bandana, a walking stick on her right hand, and a plastic cup on her left, and she had milky white eyes that seemed to have given up on seeing. she was led by another woman, who led the blind woman by her arm (the one with the plastic cup), and directed the cup toward the 2 women seated on the bench. i heard the tinkle of coins dropping into the cup, and they proceeded to the next bench: mine.

the guide woman then directed the blind woman's cup in front of my face. i looked blankly at the cup, which now had 3 1-peso coins in it, looked at the blind woman, then looked at the guide. i noticed that she had an imperious look on her face, the look of one wanting to know if i had something to give or not, the look of one who did not have the time to plead, the look of a question demanding an answer.

i sat still. i only had enough coins for a jeepney ride home. i just stared at the guide woman, and she stared back.

seeing that i was a lost cause, she motioned to the blind woman, and they moved on to the next bench.

not long after, i also stood up, lingered a bit on the view, and went home... home, where i can shut out the world again... but not really, not anymore, after remembering that there is a world outside of the cursing bosses and irate clients and projects about to explode, that there is a world outside of my own frustrations and pains and heartbreaks, that there is a world outside of me.

to know that you are not alone is relief enough.

**************

published on the inquirer january 13, 2011 :)
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20110113-314144/World-outside

to sleep, perchance to dream

taken near gaisano country mall, banilad, cebu city, may 2010



in a funny coincidence, his pose reminds me a bit of francisco goya's maja paintings...



just don't let him go nude... hehehehehe

the way to salvation?

taken on yet another morning walk around tacloban, february 2010

a juan tamad story in pictures

an accidentally funny sequence of pictures taken on a morning walk around tacloban, february 2010.

mga karaang piktyur: si freedom ug ang iyang tsinelas

starring freedom, after nadala sa bawod ang iyang tsinelas :)

photos taken at portofino, may 2009

the 3rd wheel(s)

it sucks to be the 3rd wheel...



especially when you have legs of stone, and you have no choice but to stay...



taken at the family park, tacloban city, leyte, february 2010

gasoline station, alcoy

gasoline station, alcoy, cebu, october 2010

lost but not alone

i thought the light was interesting, so i asked these kids to pose for me. mico and hannah also happen to be brother and sister, so it reminds me a bit of hansel and gretel. all i need now are a gingerbread house and a witch hehehe.





taken at some woods in maglinao, basay, negros oriental, january 2010

what the birds think...

you may have done tremendous acts of heroism, you may have won great battles and vanquished countless foes...



you may have your people sing praises about you, and have great monuments built in your name...



but the birds won't really give a damn...



taken in that plaza across the ormoc superdome, with all the pigeons, february 2010.