Cheers to the New Year

Cheers

First of all, sorry for disappearing all of last year. I have been otherwise active on KikayRunner.com, but no matter how much I post on there, it can’t really contain all my thoughts as a person who loves travel, pop culture, and basically writing about other things that interest me.

And so I’m making a resolution that in 2016, I will write more here about the places I travel and the things I see. It will be a return to journaling, which is why I started this blog in the first place. It wasn’t about capturing and holding an audience’s attention by feeding them facts, making them think, or inspiring them — although those were great by-products of great writing. It was really about having an extension of my memory on the internet (or “in the cloud” as people now say) so that I could look back on these experiences fondly and perhaps learn how best to move forward.

I now think of In My Pocket as a scrapbook. Regardless of how long ago the things I will be writing about have happened, there will always be value in putting them down “on paper” — or, as it were, into the ether.

Dreaming of Traveling

Because of this photo of the Moai (otherwise known as the Easter Island statues), I’ve just spent the entire afternoon on Wikipedia reading about Easter Island’s history and how a whole people’s culture was basically lost. I like these kinds of days spent researching ancient cultures set in exotic locales because it almost feels like traveling there without having to spend a dime. Hehehe!

Lately I’ve also read Ursula K. LeGuin’s book Changing Planes. It’s a collection of her short stories about traveling between planes of existence, and the different cultures, societies, and beings that could exist on such planes. It’s fantasy yes, but once again I am transported to different places.

I’ve just finished rereading and reposting entries from my old travel blog. You can now read them by clicking on the “Travel” tab on my Categories menu. It’s been such a long time since I actually documented a trip for the sake of writing about it. It’s been a long time since I’ve been anywhere new, actually.

Hope you enjoy reading back on where I’ve been, and I hope I can add a new tale before the year ends. 🙂

The Return of the Comeback

Oops! So I popped up, shut up, popped up again, then went completely radio silent. Sorry about that (not that anyone’s still out there listening).

So anyway here’s what’s been happening with me. I ended up not getting a regular 9-to-5 job because I got hired by TV5 to do a regular segment for them. I got to keep my other regular gigs as well, and the other blog really took off.

But you know there’s nothing quite like a space where you can put basically anything you come up with. Twitter’s been great for short thoughts, but sometimes I like to write about places I’ve been, people I talked with, things I’ve done.

Here’s to hoping with this migration to WordPress, I can rouse myself to write more than just 140 characters at a stretch.

Do You Remember?

There was a time when I had a dotcom to my name. Unfortunately I let it slip right through my hands. It’s about time I had a new personal domain name to contain information about who I am and what I do, sort of like an online calling card. So, I purchased noelledeguzman.net and set up a little portfolio site.

Right now I’m learning the ins-and-outs of WordPress so I can maintain the site dynamically, rather than editing static HTML. I’ve been with Blogger so long that I’ve been spoiled with the easy-to-edit template, and have absolutely no idea where to start with PHP. Anyway, I should try learning new things.

My personal blog will still remain at this Blogspot address, of course; no use wasting all that Google linkjuice. Ü

By the way, I’ve sent Oceana gift certificates to Kate, one of my winners for the Oceana contest. For the two other winners, the gift certificates expire by the end of July, so if you don’t send me your email addresses by next Wednesday so I can get in touch with you, I’m going to declare a forfeit and give the GC’s to my friends who’ve been clamoring for them. No sense letting good GC’s go to waste, right? 😛

Where Did April Go?

Summer is usually a whirlwind season for me. What with Marielle and Michael’s wedding, two trips to Boracay (you might have read about it on KIKAYRUNNER), and trying to catch up with work in between, I haven’t been able to update here as much as I want to. But that doesn’t mean I no longer have stories to tell.

What’s up for this month? Well, I’m going to begin the process of re-merging Trippin’ with Noelle De Guzman back into this blog. I’ve realized I don’t travel as much as I should to maintain a separate travel blog. The old site will still be up, but no longer updated. I’d love to consolidate everything I write that’s lifestyle-related into one place. Besides, Blogger is far easier to work with than the blog engine on i.ph (sorry Ade).

I’ll be writing about my TV and modeling work here, as well as restaurants I’ve been to and new things I’ve tried. I’ve got a huge blogging backlog and now’s as good a time as any to start chipping away at it.

I’m simplifying a lot of things not just here on this blog, but in my life as well. I’m juggling a lot of things and until it’s all settled down into a routine I’m comfortable with. Whew! April’s gone by in a blur; I hope May will be time well-spent.

Catching Up

I love how full the last quarter of 2008 was for me, despite the fact that I wasn’t able to write about any of it here. There were two main things that kept me occupied then: Asia Momentum 2008, and B.I.T.A.W. acting workshop.

Asia Momentum 2008

Every year, delegates from Fitness First branches all over Asia converge in one country for three days of seminars and other activities. In 2008, Fitness First Philippines was the host (the last time this happened was in 2005) and assigned the group exercise department (that’s us!) to perform three production numbers. Rehearsals began in October for the shows that would run on November 21 and 22.

"Don't Stop the Music"

The end product impressed our bosses enough to ask us to perform one of our production numbers two more times: at the BodyCombat Main Event III and at the corporate Christmas Party. (Perhaps also to get their money’s worth, because they paid us quite a lot for the rehearsals we held.) It was a lot of hard work with many sacrifices along the way. During rehearsals and run-throughs, tempers flared, egos were singed, and friendships burned to the ground based on mutual misunderstandings and unwillingness to talk things out. The most important lesson I learned? People will talk about you behind your back, so put your best face forward in front of everyone — even those you consider your friends.

B.I.T.A.W. Improv Acting Workshop

Sometime in October, I was invited to an acting workshop by two of my friends from church. It was being run for free over 12 weeks, so I thought, “Why not?”

Turns out, it was a workshop where improvisational acting exercises and techniques would be used to help draw out creativity and spur learning among the participants.

B.I.T.A.W. presents Laugh Out Loud

Our “graduation ceremony” was a showcase at My Little Art Place.

When I say “draw out” and “spur”, I do mean to imply there was a certain level of pain and discomfort in the process (practically drawing blood and tears). I had to take a good look at myself, my goals in the television and film industry, and the work I was putting in to achieve those goals. The most important lessons I learned are Truth, and Union. Without truth in my acting process, the end product looks artificial, forced, and mechanical. Without union among my heart, mind, and soul when it comes to acting, I cannot give my all.

Between those two activities, I realized that when it comes to acting and performing, you’ve really got to give it all you have for anything you do to be worthwhile. At the same time, you can’t railroad anyone into doing the same thing; they’ve got to come to that realization by themselves.

I can’t wait for what this year will bring!

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Resurrection

And we’re back, finally! You might know the story from my Multiply post about it: I was very upset at having my domain name stolen from under me when it expired. Now that I’ve had a few months of hindsight, it’s not so bad not having a DOTcom (which is now being used to direct people to a search portal, ugh). All I wanted was someplace to put my writings which wouldn’t fit anywhere else, and as lovely as Multiply is, Blogspot is far more easily indexed by Google.

Ergo, I’m back by my own demand! I will be writing here more often instead of expending my lovely one-liners on my Facebook account’s status messages. This place gives me space to think, maybe write some things that may not interest those on my social networks — but the point is, I want to write. I need to write.

Re-link me, please? Ü

Some Admin Stuff

Hi there!

If you’re one of the subscribers to my feed from my blog In My Pocket, you might have noticed my website and feed’s been down for about three weeks. I’m having problems with my domain name (noelledeguzman.com) but I’m hoping it gets settled within the month. Meanwhile, I’ve redirected my feed to my travel blog, which you’re now reading. If you’re looking for some fresh stuff I’ve written, check out my article about Quezon.

If you’re one of the regular readers of this travel blog, no, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth. I’ve been busy with non-travel stuff but I have been someplace just recently. Even though I didn’t win the PBA Best Travel Blog award, that doesn’t mean I want to stop writing about travel. Hang on, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!