CATS and Tokyo Cafe

July 25, 2010
Had dinner at Tokyo Cafe and watched CATS at the CCP with Q friends.

Location: SM MOA and CCP

Q Christmas Get-together 2009

Christmas get-together with Q, ABS, mag and manga people. Marina Seafood Resto for grub, Starbucks for coffee. Dec 5-6, 2009.

P3 at the Park

The old P3 boyband, Questor, ABS-CBN and manga peeps met again for a late lunch and early merienda this April 6, 2009. We ate ice cream at elfav and ate merienda at Kopi Roti (yup, in that order). Both are at Pergola, BF Parañaque, Phase 1.

Elfav has a nice concept of having board games at the tables to while away the time. I took a liking to the magnetic monkey-flip dartboard (I did my grades using this while waiting for the ice cream).

The P3 boys couldn't resist, we struck a pose at the mini-park. If we had another album cover, this would be it.



From left: (standing) Bebert (aka Dodong Diesel), Kenneth (aka Vince Valvolene, formerly Ryan Rev-X),
and Olan (aka Brad Barbula). Seated: Igor (aka Cody Havoline)

Cherry had a bum toe, OJTs dropped foamboards on it. And in the absence / in lieu of Fafa Nick, we're getting Patty to do some management work for us.

Till next time, guys.

UP AME: Anime in the FIlipino Eye

Got to sit on the panel with Melvin Calingo (Taga-Ilog) of Culture Crash, Jay Fournier of Toei Animation Philippines and Miss Hanna of UP AME. Aliw, haven't seen Taga-Ilog in years, last I think was when our publications were still active. It was nice to hear everyone's insights on anime and manga in the Philippines.

A Boyband Dec 13

From the official P3 press release: It's time for the P3 reunion! The staff of Bitter Gourd Talent Management and the boys of P3--Vince Valvolene aka Ryan Rev-X, Dodong "Diether" Diesel, Brad Barbula and Cody Havoline--who still looked hot and hunky (cough) met up for their annual Christmas dinner. The band may have broken up but the boys promise to make their comeback soon. Here's a shout out to our former manager Nick B. who is now in New Zealand. Nick! Wish you were here! Note: Just an annual get-together of a bunch of friends who write, edit and draw for different magazines and manga publications here and abroad. Yes, sad to say, there really is a virtual boyband called P3.

Blast from my manga past

Mikhail was looking for some old Gokitomo pics so I scoured my files. Unearthed these old Gokitomo and Nopperabo wallpapers. Art by Aldin Viray and Jennyson Rosero. Mina Kiefervon and Ran Gavinmaur characters by Romina Reyes (forgot her married surname, my bad O_o;;).

Mangingisda

Painting by the late "Boss" Jess Matro, graphic artist and my officemate at the old Questor offices.
 

He's the one in the white long-sleeved shirt.
And in between Bryan Uy and Rey Limoneras.

My EIC Bambi has a post about him in her blog. Hindi ko na madagdagan. Miss ka na namin, Boss Jess. Sa uulitin na lang.

Nopperabo Zero

This was how my manga (comics) series was supposed to end. But Questor folded late 2004 so we never had the chance to release this last installment of Nopperabo. (Weird that the last installment is the origin story...)




In Japanese Obake / Kaidan folklore (ghost stories), the nopperabo is a woman without a face. The Questor manga Nopperabo was not a ghost but an angel of vengeance. A woman suddenly becomes faceless then takes on the face of a crime victim to exact justice.

I miss making my own manga. :( I miss the talented and temperamental (or just plain mental) manga artists of Questor. At least everyone has moved on to better things.

I used to preserve the content of the old gokitomo.com and nopperabo.com Questor Manga websites. Still have them in my hard drive.

Bam and Olan's wedding

Bam and Olan's wedding, October 19, 2007. San Antonio de Padua and The Shanghai Garden, Paranaque.

GXCon 2007

GXCon 2007
October 7, 2007

GXCon 2007 and Tia Maria's

GXCon 2007 and Tia Maria's
October 7, 2007

Generated by Flickr Album Maker

Met up with soon-to-be married Bambi and Olan, and soon-to-have-housewarming Donna and Bebert at Tia Maria's at the height of the Pacquiao fight (round 11 to be exact). We were supposed to have a send off for Jennyson who's leaving for Singapore but he had prior commitments. Stay safe there, tungaw. Go get 'em. Unleash hell. :D I tagged along with Bam and Olan who were promoting their international  Moonlight Meow manga at the GXCon (local gaming and anime convention). There at the GXCon 2007, we met some old friends, Bryan Uy, DJ Uy, Val (Poof!) and Kenneth of Ozine, Brian of Anime-club, Richard of Gamer Zaibatsu and Retsu of Team Kyoudo, all still active in the local anime community. My neighbor BJ was also there, checking out the pinoy X-box community. I also bumped into a Bedan who once interviewed me when we were still with Questor (sorry, I forgot your name, dude). Passed by the Filcosplay booth just to say "Hi!" to cosplay legend Robert. Couldn't stay long with all the manga deadlines. O_o;; *Sigh*, lots of newer peeps cosplaying nowadays.

Poi, Poi, Hello Kitty and Maya

Finally got myself well-balanced poi from JR. They come with free lessons, too.

With that I found my way to the UP CHK last Saturday for a poi session with JR. Philip of FlipSpin and Clair joined me there for the poi spinning. Two girls who had previous poi lessons joined us. I think their names were Jane and Arlene, I'm not sure though, O_o;; forgetful me (sorry ladies...). Oh, and it was like a reunion of sorts since JR, Clair and I all come from the UP School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS, formerly ILIS, formerly ILS).

The poi I bought and the practice poi we all used were different from the poi we were used to. We use balls on ends of rope at home for practice and though soft they still hurt when they hit us. The pratice poi was of the beanbag-type so the force is dissipated. Of course hitting yourself in the nuts (beanbags hitting beanbags :p) still hurts a lot but we can manage.

JR said that the more the merrier. So if anyone is interested, why not join us every Saturday? Just message me and I'll text you the details.

Anyway, Philip and I think this is a nice way of cross-training for those like us involved in skill toys / arts. The move set and basic actions are similar to 2A (double yoyos) style of yoyo play so we were a bit familiar with the movements. Can't wait to learn more and try it out on the fire poi. :D (Jeez, this despite JR showing us his burns for moves gone awry.) But heck, we all only live once so I'm definitely going for the fire play!

It was tiring, ngalay we call it. Arms hurt like hell. But I found my way to Greenhills after that. My old Questor officemate Tak (Takako Takimoto) is in town. Her husband Joel Gammad (now Atty. Gammad) shuttles back and forth between Japan and the Philippines, but for the first birthday of their daughter Maya the whole family took the trip to the Philippines. Maya looks so much like a mini-Tak. The birthday party was held near our old office along Ortigas, near Roosvelt St. Some of our old kendo clubmates were also there. It was nice to see Ralph, Patrick, JM and Joan. Patrick's bigger than all of us now since he's 2nd year high school. He used to be the smallest at 3-ft tall when he was just in grade school. Now he could beat the crap out of all of us.

Tak and Baby Maya

Ralph and Patrick

Ralph getting a Tekken tattoo from the face painters

Jolibee... without the scandal...

Tak, Joel and Maya

Tak and Baby Maya

Ralph with Baby Maya

Ohhh... And I got this cute Hello Kitty plushie from the UFO Catcher at Time Zone in Glorietta on my way to the regular Saturday yoyo training camp meet of FlipSpin.

Crossposted: gokitomo.com, gorilla.multiply.com, gorilla.vox.com.

Gokitomo and Nopperabo Go Retro

Ever wondered what happened to this?

And this?

Well... Since I've been asked a couple of times by a number of people...
The content of the old gokitomo.com and nopperabo.com Questor Manga websites can now be accessed via http://gokitomo.com/archive/.

The Nopperabo Manga Website Archives can also be accessed directly at http://gokitomo.com/archive/nopperabo/


The Gokitomo Manga Website Archives can also be accessed directly at http://gokitomo.com/archive/gokitomo/