QUALITY IS IN THE DETAILS

Quality is in the details.

I rarely photograph the footwear that I design. It's not that I am interested to it but it is part of my every day. In footwear production, quality is mandatory and so I ensure that I am providing the best quality in every detail. I design and develop footwear that is beautiful, comfortable and durable.

Many are curious about my job and the nature of my work. Because for the past 10 years, I have been dealing with this kind of things and there’s no use to put everything in picture.

Yes, I am a Footwear Industry Development Specialist. This is the title given to us by the Philippine Footwear Federation Incorporated after we were hired as Footwear Consultants for Marikina Shoe Industry.

I don’t want to be called as Designer. Yes, I design footwear but as a specialist you are not bound only to design the shoes but you make them as a whole. It covers a whole lot of things; Anatomy, leather technology, industrial engineering, etc.

And what is so exciting about this photo?

This is Arabic Sandal designed for a large retail company in Middle East, actually one of those sandals that I designed with a fabulous detail.

WALITOGRAFIA II : i express. i shoot.i live. i love ♥

Lately, I feel so down because of the unexpected things happened. Aside, I was busy in my work and I almost forgot that it's been a while since I have not posted something to my "Walitografia's I Express. I Shoot. I Live. I Love."

And this is my first photo for the second volume.

There, the King of all artists is reminding me that even the world is crumbling down on me, still it is the most beautiful place. He was there with me during my difficult times.

So, there I have it. Taken from my window on the 8th floor at 6:48 pm.

KAY BATHALA SASANDIG

KAY BATHALA SASANDIG

Sa bawat pintig
Ng kaluluwang uhaw
At pagpatak ng dugo
At pawis na umaapaw
Hindi alintana
Pagod na nararamdaman
Idinadalangin ang kagalingan
Sa Bathalang aming sinasandigan.

Anumang panahon ng paghihirap
At sakunang aming dinaranas
Laging iniisip at panay ang paghanap
Kay Bathalang sandigan
Ang aming Diyos na maalam
Panginoong nagbibigay buhay
Poon ng sangkatauhan
Bathalang sandigan ng sambayanan.

Ang lahat ng unos
At lahat ng sigwa
Nananatiling gising at 'di tulala
Sapagkat nakasandig
Kay Bathala ang awa
Nasa amin ang gawa
Aming puso ay payapa
Ang liwanag ka'y Bathala.

HINDI NAKAKAWILI : ANG KAHIRAPAN AT LEKSIYONG DULOT NI JAN-JAN

Hindi palaging perang napakadaling makuha sa pamamagitan ng game show ang magpapatakbo ng buhay ng lahat ng mahihirap na Pinoy. Ang show na katulad ng Willing Willie na animo ay sinasanto ng karamihan sa mga Pinoy ay sumasalamin mismo sa katamaran ng mga Pilipino. Perang madaling makuha kapalit na kahihiyan o ng sariling dangal ay perang biglang mawawala at mismong magbabaon sa iyo sa kahirapan.

Naging maingay ang mga taong sumuporta kay Jan-Jan dahil sa malinaw na pang-aabuso ng host na si Willie Revillame kahit pa i-deny niya ito ng maraming beses. Nakipagtalo pa ako sa isa kong kaibigan dahil tila sinasabi niyang walang kasalanan si Willie sa pagsayaw ng bata. Sabihin na nating walang kasalanan si Willie pero responsible siya sa lahat ng pangyayari dahil: (1) maaari niya itong pigilang mag-perform ng ito’y umiiyak na (2) hindi gusto ng isang bata ang kanyang ginagawa kung ito’y umiiyak maliban kung ito’y nasa isang pelikula (3) hindi na niya dapat hinayaang paulit-ulitin pang gawin ng bata ang kanyang pagsayaw (4) hindi na dapat pinangalandakan ni Willie na ginagawa ng bata ito para kumita ng pera.

Maraming leksiyon na makukuha sa pangyayaring ito at magbubukas sa mga mata ng mga taong kumakatawan sa kahirapang mayroon ang Pilipinas. Dapat nating malaman na bagamat mahirap tayo hindi laging instant o madalian ang pagkita ng pera, sapagkat ang pera ay pinaghihirapan at pinaghahanapbuhayan. Dapat mabuksan ang mga mata ng mga taong hindi game show ang sagot sa kahirapan kundi kasipagan. Nagiging mahirap tayo kung hindi tayo kumikilos at walang ginagawa at naghihintay ng grasyang babagsak o umaasa sa suwerte o himala.

Nakakalungkot isipin na nalason ng mga game show na ito ang isipan ng maraming Pilipinong ang buong akala ay iyon na nga ang kasagutan sa pinagdadaanang kahirapan na kahit pa magmukhang tanga sa harap ng tao ay ginagawa ang kahit anong bagay makakuha lang ng instant cash.

Ang sa akin lang, malaki rin ang pananagutan ng mga networks sa Pilipinas sa mga nakikita ng mga tao at napapanood. Malakas kasi sa rating dahil maraming tagapanood at malaki ang kikitain pero nakalimutan nilang may malaking imapact ito sa sambayanan. Dapat ibahin ang stratehiya at programang nagsasabing tumutulong sa mahihirap. Hindi lang pera ang sagot. Marami pang iba.

Ang pangyayaring tungkol kay Jan-Jan ay hindi natatapos dito lang at hindi dapat umikot sa TV5 o kay Willie Revillame lamang. Sapat na ang lahat ng pangyayaring ito ay magbukas sa lahat ng Pilipino na maging mapagmatiyag sa kung ano ang nangyayari sa paligid.

Oo, mahirap kami pero hindi ibig sabihin ay kailangang pumila sa lahat ng game shows at gumawa ng gimik kahit na nakakahiya para kumita lang ng pera. Puwede akong kumuha ng labada sa mga may kaya, gumawa ng bibingka at ibenta sa kalsada, o magbantay sa tindahan ng kakilala. Puwede akong magpaturo kung paano manggupit sa barberong may pagupitan sa kabilang kanto. Maaring akong magpaturo kung paano mag-manicure o mag-pedicure kaya sa kaibigang bakla at kapag natuto ay mag-service sa mga kalapit barangay. Maraming paraan ang pagkita ng pera pero para tapakan ang pagkatao mo, hindi ko yata magagawa. 

HOW TO BE ALONE

A video by fiilmaker, Andrea Dorfman, and poet/singer/songwriter, Tanya Davis

visit Positivism

HOW TO BE ALONE by Tanya Davis

If you are at first lonely, be patient. If you've not been alone much, or if when you were, you weren't okay with it, then just wait. You'll find it's fine to be alone once you're embracing it.

We could start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library. Where you can stall and read the paper, where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there. Where you can browse the stacks and smell the books. You're not supposed to talk much anyway so it's safe there.

There's also the gym. If you're shy you could hang out with yourself in mirrors, you could put headphones in (guitar stroke).

And there's public transportation, because we all gotta go places.

And there's prayer and meditation. No one will think less if you're hanging with your breath seeking peace and salvation.

Start simple. Things you may have previously (electric guitar plucking) based on your avoid being alone principals.

The lunch counter. Where you will be surrounded by chow-downers. Employees who only have an hour and their spouses work across town and so they -- like you -- will be alone.

Resist the urge to hang out with your cell phone.

When you are comfortable with eat lunch and run, take yourself out for dinner. A restaurant with linen and silverware. You're no less intriguing a person when you're eating solo dessert to cleaning the whipped cream from the dish with your finger. In fact some people at full tables will wish they were where you were.

Go to the movies. Where it is dark and soothing. Alone in your seat amidst a fleeting community.
And then, take yourself out dancing to a club where no one knows you. Stand on the outside of the floor till the lights convince you more and more and the music shows you. Dance like no one's watching...because, they're probably not. And, if they are, assume it is with best of human intentions. The way bodies move genuinely to beats is, after all, gorgeous and affecting. Dance until you're sweating, and beads of perspiration remind you of life's best things, down your back like a brook of blessings.

Go to the woods alone, and the trees and squirrels will watch for you.
Go to an unfamiliar city, roam the streets, there're always statues to talk to and benches made for sitting give strangers a shared existence if only for a minute and these moments can be so uplifting and the conversations you get in by sitting alone on benches might've never happened had you not been there by yourself

Society is afraid of alonedom, like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements, like people must have problems if, after a while, nobody is dating them. but lonely is a freedom that breaths easy and weightless and lonely is healing if you make it.

You could stand, swathed by groups and mobs or hold hands with your partner, look both further and farther for the endless quest for company. But no one's in your head and by the time you translate your thoughts, some essence of them may be lost or perhaps it is just kept.

Perhaps in the interest of loving oneself, perhaps all those sappy slogans from preschool over to high school's groaning were tokens for holding the lonely at bay. Cuz if you're happy in your head than solitude is blessed and alone is okay.

It's okay if no one believes like you. All experience is unique, no one has the same synapses, can't think like you, for this be releived, keeps things interesting lifes magic things in reach.

And it doesn't mean you're not connected, that communitie's not present, just take the perspective you get from being one person in one head and feel the effects of it. take silence and respect it. if you have an art that needs a practice, stop neglecting it. if your family doesn't get you, or religious sect is not meant for you, don't obsess about it.

you could be in an instant surrounded if you needed it
If your heart is bleeding make the best of it
There is heat in freezing, be a testament.

ANG PINAKAMAGANDANG TULA SA BALAT NG LUPA

Ang Pinakamagandang Tula sa Balat ng Lupa

Ngayong gabi ako ay susulat
Ng mga katagang siyang magiging tula
Sa kahit anong wika
Puso ang magsasalita
Ilang letra, ilang berso
Lahat ba'y dapat may tugma?
Kung pipilitin kong gumawa ng tula
Upang sundan ang sikat na makata
Baka hindi na ito maging tula
Na siyang pinakamaganda sa balat ng lupa?
Inisip ko ang buhay ko, sarili ko
Karanasan, mga pighati at kasiyahan
Dumungaw sa bintana't tiningnan
Mga bituin sa kalawakan
Maliwanag ang buwan
Kasingliwanag din kaya ng araw?
Ang dampi ng hangin at huni ng kuliglig
Ay musika sa aking pandinig
O kayganda ng langit!
Madilim man ay maliwanag rin
Makislap ang tala, umaga'y parating
Nakalimutan kong isulat
Mga nakita't narinig
Nasaan ang tulang dapat na gawin?
Paano ang bersong sa isip ay kinimkim?
Ang tula na aking hangarin
Isusulat na lang ba sa ihip ng hangin?
Tumibok ang puso't ko
Pinakinggan ang pintig
Ang tula raw sa atin ay nakaukit
Sapagkat ang tula ay
Ako...
Ikaw...
Sila...
Tayo...
At ang pinakamagandang tula sa balat ng lupa
Ay ang TAO!

The Most Beautiful Poem on Earth
Translation by Angelo Ancheta

Tonight I will write
A poem
In a language
My heart knows
How many words, how many verses
Should there be rhymes?
If I force myself to write a verse
Only to follow an idol poet
Will it still be a poem?
I thought about my life, myself
My ups and down, tears and laughter,
Looked out the window to gaze
At the sky, the stars
And the moon so bright,
The breeze so gentle,
And the sound of crickets
Brings music to my ears.
What a splendid night
It seemed I lost
The words to describe
And the poem I wanted to write
Should I just write in the air?
I listened to my heartbeat
Telling me how to find
The poem
That is
Me..
You...
Them....
Us.....
The most beautiful poem
Is a human being.