I'm shamelessly advertising my blog where I post almost daily a LEGO creation by my son and occasionally by me. Please visit www.varietyalley.com. Rate the creations. Leave a comment. Thanks!

I am so delighted that the scrappers at One Little Word picked my layout as one of their favorites. Check out the slideshow at:

http://onelittleword.typepad.com/olw/2007/11/full-wordsters.html

Here's my entry to this week's challenge at www.onelittleword.com. Layout inspired by a Safeway billboard.

An LO I made from a trip to Great America.

Start: Nov 9, '07
End: Nov 18, '07
Location: Malate Catholic Church
A photo exhibit fund-raiser for the benefit of the Parish Council of Malate to aid them in their various projects for the less fortunate children of Malate.

The photo exhibit features the works of the several members of RFilipinas.

Please do visit and make it a meaningful event for the community.

Here's the link for more details about the exhibit:
http://wamjam.multiply.com/photos/photo/35/3?

Is love really sweeter the second time around?

In the past few weeks I’ve gone back to my one true love after a seductive fling.

I’ve again been spending long hours in the darkroom, a favorite activity that I, and I am sure many others, have put in the back burner to give in to the digital photography seduction.

What made me go back to the darkroom after a long cool off period? Because I can, courtesy of my Brazilian friend Fernanda whose guest room I sequestered for art's sake. Back home, I’ve always had difficulty looking for the materials and resources (paper, film, chemicals, books, hardware, space and CASH) that I wanted and always settled for what was available. If, they were available. Now I have access to everything, leaving me with no excuse to put it off.

I haven’t given up the affair with digital yet, choosing to have something convenient and predictable at hand during lazy or hectic days. But for those romantic moments when time is of no essence, slow hands in the dark never fail to give total satisfaction.

The photography world has labeled darkroom enthusiasts as ‘dinosaurs,’ representing everything that was ‘primitive’ in the field of image making. These dinosaurs, including myself, have actually taken to the label. Dinosaurs, of the reptilian variety anyway, were mighty , romantic and in an odd sense beautiful.
I also take issue with the ‘primitive’ perception, especially by those who haven’t actually gotten even one of their fingers wet in the creative process. The traditional darkroom can be as simple or as sophisticated as you want it to be.(Please click 'read more" below)

UPDATE: Bummer. We had difficulties getting a connection on Skype last night. We'll try again.

Join us in the first ever BarangayAmerika Skypecast

Meet Filipinos from all over the world as we talk about life abroad.

Schedule:
US Pacific Time: 07:00 p.m. Friday August 31, 2007
US Eastern Time: 10:00 p.m. Friday August 31, 2007
Manila Time: 10:00 a.m. Saturday September 1, 2007

Language:
English and Filipino

Free account and software required:
Download Here

Zane Lamprey braves the forests and rice paddies of Tayabas Quezon for
the ultimate Pinoy drink: "166 proof! That's the strongest drink we
ever had on our show..."

Excerpts:
http://www.mojohd.com/mojoseries/threesheets/?videoId=22
http://www.mojohd.com/mojoseries/threesheets/?videoId=23

Episode info at:
http://www.mojohd.com/mojoseries/threesheets/episodes/view/philippines

-kyo-

Welcome to the upgraded version of BarangayAmerika.com!

You can still access the previous site at its old address home.barangayamerika.com. We opted to upgrade the whole site from scratch and take advantage of the recent improvements in our content management system.

If you are an existing user, you should be able to login with your original username and password. Changing your password in the new site will NOT update your old password at home.barangayamerika.com (they are stored seperately).

Site improvements and new features include:

• Multimedia support: flash, flash video, mp3, images, Flickr images and photosets
• New Drupal themes
• Improved protection from comment spammers

Content examples:

• Image content type
• Audio content type (mp3)
• Blog entry content type with Flash MP3 player
• Blog entry content type with Flash FLV player
• Blog entry content type with Flickr Images and PhotoSets

If you notice anything weird or something is not functioning correctly, please let us know.

Thank you and we hope you like our new look.

-kyo-