Rabid Adventures (Part 1)

Hi everybody! It’s Friday the Nov. 13th and you know what that means? That’s right: tons of bad luck for us mere mortals. My bad luck moment this particular Ft13 involves 4 angry dogs, 3 fingers, 2 shots and a trip to the hospital. Yep, I was mauled. Well, not really. 4 dogs were having a fight, and I stupidly tried to play human referee. (For future reference: when dogs disagree, let them sort it out themselves. Don’t try to help. At all.) As a result, my right hand got bitten pretty bad. Two of my fingers (thumb and middle) got lacerations, with the middle one having 2 so it was considered severe. My forefinger had a deep puncture wound right on the tip. The rest of my hand were full of minor scratches. Don’t even ask why I used my hand to stop the dog fight. Seriously, don’t ask. The picture shows my thumb and forefinger. They were bleeding a lot earlier, but I tied up my wrist to help slow it down.

I went to the hospital to get anti-rabies and anti-tetanus shots. The doctor told me I need 2440 IUs/12.2 cc of E.R.I.G. which is the main anti-rabies vaccine. Rabies doesn’t have treatment, unfortunately, so everything needs to be pre-emptive. They told me once the symptoms begin to occur, there’s really nothing anybody can do. Ultimately, I’m gonna die. To make matters worse, the doctor told me that if I die, I’m not going to be resurrected as a werewolf. He said he was 100% sure of this. Too bad.

I still need around 4 more shots over the course of 30 days. I also need to hope none of the dogs who bit me suddenly end up dead because my soul is now linked with them through some sort of black magic. If they die, I die. I’m not even kidding. That’s what the doctor said. Really.

Rabies is deadly so it’s not Rocket Powered. So don’t get bit and hope I’m still alive to write about more Rocket Powered Stuff from around the world!

Good Job

Some guy replaced all the sound effects in Half-Life 2 with his own voiced sound effects. Some of the sounds are hilarious like “pew pew pew” and “vrooom” and “bang bang” and “fwooosh” and “clank” and “bzzt” and so many more. I’m happy somebody some where in the world has way more free time than myself to create something as funnily useless as this. God bless the world.

Abandon Responsibility

Have you ever been to that point in your life when you think you just had too much. There’s so many things that need to be done you just wish you were a kid again when the bulk of your responsibilities was just playing with your toys and probably the occasional chore.
Well, I have. And after much thought I decided that the best possible way to approach this growing problem is to just get rid of it. Be reckless. Do whatever you want. Abandon responsibility.
Think about it. Without your responsibilities, you no longer need to worry about keeping a stable job to pay the rent or put food on the table. You no longer have to worry about gaining weight or losing weight. No more thoughts about deadlines, budgets, bills and all those other crap which do nothing but complicate your life. Quit your job! Squander your savings! Simplify life!
Lose all the stuff you thought you need like the television, the radio or the washing machine. Throw away your cellphone! Delete your Facebook and Yahoo accounts! Be the man that nature intended you to be, the hunter-gatherer kind of man which doesn’t worry about education, social responsibility, human rights or any other of those garbage!
Your responsibilities are only adding more weight to your increasingly tired and stressed out mind. Without responsibility there would be no problems, so abandon responsibility today!

Sonnet 1

Must I present myself in such a state
and brave your brightness with unworthy words?
Without effects, must I remain and wait?
Or seize the opportunity, converse?
What shame! I have not many glorious robes
to even match the glory of your skin!
No rings; no handkerchiefs as white as doves;
no thing to capture your attention in.
Except in one where my faith lies the most,
that which no man may dare to trespass on.
My wish, you take this measure that I boast:
my mind, the only treasure that I don.
And yet your eyes display only despair,
my heart and mind, they rend beyond repair.

I wrote this sonnet for a class and nearly forgotten it.

Luckily, a good friend of mine reminded me of it so now it’s here for all the world to see.

This is one of the first sonnets I ever wrote so tell me what you think.

The Guy I Want to Be Someday

The best video you’ll see today.

Watch at least more than one minute. He’s my new idol. He’s definitely Rocket Powered!

Anathe-Money

This week has been all about money. My family had money problems. I discovered I’ve ran out of money. Even the Desperate Housewives episode is all about money. So with all the hints the universe have been clearly dropping, I’ve decided to finally write a post about money, which in and of itself can be considered the honor of being Rocket Powered Stuff, simply because money is so awesome.

I’m going go to go ahead and assume that you would be lying if you said you didn’t need money. Everyone needs money. The only people who I think is really detached from money are bushmen from Africa or really obscure hill tribes in Central Asia, but even they have some sort of standard of exchange of goods, which I guess can still be considered money. Even rich people need money, they just don’t notice it because they’ve got plenty (jerks). The thing about it is it’s usually a taboo topic.

People don’t go around discussing how much money they have or how much money they can make. While I think Filipinos are tactless about certain stuff like commenting about how fat you’ve gotten as casual as if it wouldn’t hurt feelings, they’re still a bit awkward about discussing money with each other. I think it’ll be more acceptable to admit you’re a flaming homo than to talk about money with your friends. It seems like it’s a readily avoided topic, which is totally bullshit since it’s probably the root of all their problems. They’ll make time to discuss useless television celebrities, but they’ll get really awkward if you ask them how much they’re making in their job. I just don’t get it.

I think we should openly talk about money more. I mean we talk openly about sex all the time, why can’t we talk about something that’s actually relevant like money.

My father called us (via Skype, thank you Internet technology) and told us he received an email telling him that somebody saw my grandmother (his mother) walking to the market place. The email reported that when asked why she was walking, my grandmother would answer she didn’t have fare money. It was incredibly disturbing. Before I decided to exile myself in Cavite, I lived with my grandparents in Cainta and I love them so much. I never knew that things were getting financially bad until my father received the email. My grandmother could’ve asked for money from me, I wouldn’t have minded. I’m a single guy and the only contents of my budget are my meals, my laundry and my electric bill (and the occasional movie) and those aren’t really much. I hate the fact that my grandmother couldn’t have saved herself all the money troubles by asking me for some help. She’s MY grandmother! Of course, I’d help her.

I think we should openly talk about money more. I mean we talk openly about sex all the time, why can’t we talk about something that’s actually relevant (and, honestly, more interesting) like money. We all know money is important and that we shouldn’t let it control our lives, I’m not going to elaborate examples discussing that. All I’m saying is that we should be more open about money, our feelings about it, our troubles with it and basically, just how much we sometimes need it.

So clear your convos of useless gossip and talk about money more, and continue reading my blog for more Rocket Powered Stuff from around the world!

Sudden Adult Death Syndrome

My father brought a huge collection of DVDs when he made his yearly home visit last month and I’ve been spending a huge deal of time trying to see them all. One of the films I saw last weekend was the first Final Destination. If you still haven’t seen it, you should. It’s no Spielberg or Scorsese but it’s still pretty okay. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that this movie actually made me think about death. It’s a grim thought I know, but it’s something no medical breakthrough can save us from; like that old saying about death being the “debt that all men pay”. Well, my thoughts aren’t exactly about how if you cheat death, it will come after you in every possible way. This kind of personifies death as a being who has a job to do and will do it no matter how clever or lucky you are, which is obviously untrue.

“The only thing I haven’t done yet is die.“

Anyway, thinking about how short your life is makes you realize the numerous things that you know you can’t possibly accomplish in a lifetime. You can look at this several ways. You can be pessimistic and be all emo about it OR you can actually try to prioritize the things which are most important to you and try to do it all before your time runs out. It doesn’t matter how mundane or monumental your life’s ambitions are, I believe that if you’re really convinced about them, you will accomplish them, despite the things (or people) that will try and get in your way. So here are a few of the things that I want to do at least once before I die:

1. Save a life.

2. Meet my soul-mate.

3. Go on an adventure.

4. Serve my country.

5. Skydive.

The fifth one is really just out of curiosity. I know I want to do a lot more things like “travel the world”, “get rich” and other generic ambitions, too, but these five are the only things that I need to do before I can happily say that the only thing I haven’t done yet is die, like Fall Out Boy.

Just to give you an idea how quickly life can end, go learn something about SADS or Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, where a fit and young person is known to die instantly for no apparent reason. It’s very real and very true. If there’s such a medical condition as SADS, hell, I think I better get started with my list before I literally drop dead.

So what about you? What are things that you really want to do before you bite the dust? Whatever it is, you better get going and continue reading my blog for more Rocket Powered Stuff from beyond the grave. Or around the world. Whatever works.

Behold The Face of The Revolution

Around two years ago, I became fascinated with graphics design and I was lucky enough to happen upon an online PDF magazine, which at the time can be considered a mere start-up, showcasing graphic design talents from around the world. RevolutionArt has gone a long way ever since and now, following the release of their 15^th issue, Dreams, I’m happy to report that Nelson Medina, the man behind RevolutionArt, have expanded the magazine to include models and music as well.

Maybe some designs are not professional, but some ideas are born with strong passion and conviction. That’s the real value.

“The idea comes from many trips looking for inspiration. Initially the idea was conceived to show creative works oriented to advertisement. But the actual shape was led by the people’s participation,” explains Nelson Medina in my e-mail interview with him. “Revolutionart is a link between different sources of inventiveness and a path for many artists to show their works.”

The magazine is open to all artists who has a passion towards the visual arts and is looking for free avenues for exposure. Contributions come from artists from around the world, from Indonesia to Great Britain, and from Japan to Argentina.

“Maybe some designs are not professional, but some ideas are born with strong passion and conviction. That’s the real value,” Medina further explains. “Some of the recurrent feelings of the people are disappointment about society. I think they feel oppressed and that’s why Revolutionart touches many subjects to free their thoughts about global issues. It’s great to give some control to change the ‘shallow world’ and impose ‘revolutionary’ concepts… make the people think from a new sight.”

Revolutionart magazine is available for download on their website here once every two months. They usually hold a theme for all the graphics displayed ranging from Politics (Issue #13) to Music, Peace and Love (Issue #5). Currently, the magazine boasts 70,000 subscribers to each edition, majority of which are Europeans and South Americans. The magazine charges nothing for advertisers who wish to put their ads in it, as long as they fit the artistic nature of the rest of the content. Converse, among many others, currently uses the revolutionary platform.

I’m impressed with the results and I love what Revolutionart is by now.

“There are many projects in the future for Revolutionart,” says Medina about the magazine’s future. “We’re thinking to develop different brands to make design related services and products. Specially to create a world of imagination, perfect for dreamers.” He also admits that the magazine is open for major changes as long as the meaning of the revolution remains. “I think about myself as a re-builder or a transformer. If I sell Revolutionart, I could make a new one with the team (with more money), new brand, new face but with the same spirit. That spirit can’t be sold.”

Revolutionart’s next issue will be out by January of next year with the timely theme, Global Crisis. If you want to submit your graphic design work, your painting, your photograph, your band, yourself or anything you want to share under the idea Global Crisis, the deadline to make the January issue is on December 15, 2008. More information is available on their website here.

“Real changes are made of disruption, reconstruction, anarchy and self questioning. I’m working on that…” Nelson Medina have worked for corporate advertisers before and have searched for more inspiration. He is currently in Uruguay. “I’m impressed with the results and I love what Revolutionart is by now.”

Now be sure to download RevolutionArt’s current issue, Dreams, and continue reading my blog for more Rocket Powered Stuff from around the world!