Akala ko mag sho-shopping pa tayo, Mikee?

Yesterday, I went to Divisoria for the very first time. Of course, we passed by Binondo which reminded me so much of my block mate and friend, Mikee Illescas. Sweet, beautiful, kind-hearted, funny, bubbly Mikee. The whole time we were there, I couldn't stop thinking of Mikee.

We were made group mates by one of our professors last term for our Audio-Visual Production class and in one of our productions, she landed as the Director. We had to go to several places that weren't known much and feature them in our little show. Being director, Mikee had to search high and low on the internet and a travel book I gave her and somehow we landed in Binondo. We got to Binondo through all the excruciating traffic, only to find out that the place she searched for was closed on Sundays. We were there on a Sunday. Nevertheless, we laughed it off, and started looking for different locations and destinations. We went against almost every plan that day and we managed to do fine.

That was the Mikee I knew. And that is the Mikee I will always remember and keep in my heart forever. She was always so happy, always so positive and always so... Mikee.

Last night, in the middle of watching a movie, I checked my Twitter Feed just to see what everyone was up to. I didn't want to believe it. I wanted to think that I was already sleeping and I was in the middle of a horrible nightmare. I stared at my friend's tweet, not wanting to believe a word it said.

Mikee has been in the hospital for months. I don't even remember the last time I saw her. From what I've been reminded of, it started a week or two after everyone got back from Christmas Break. Our block started asking her barkada questions on where she was, what's happened, has she gotten better, and when will we finally see her?

Eventually, after so many weeks of hoping she'd come back for the rest of the term, her parents finally dropped her out of class. Everyone was counting on seeing her up and back to herself by next term. No one ever, ever, EVER thought that we wouldn't see her anytime soon again. No one.

Mikee has touched so many people's lives. Last night, after reading Riah's tweet, I went on her Facebook Timeline and lo and behold, there it was. Every one's messages kept saying how sad and sorry they were to not have her anymore. So many people were saying that she's in a better place, some were begging for her to suddenly reply to everyone and tell us that she was okay. No one wanted to believe she was gone. I don't want to believe that she's gone.

I can never forget Mikee's smile. I can never forget her voice. I can never forget her happiness and how down-to-earth she was. She had material things that I could only hope for, but to her, they were just things that didn't need more attention than others. She never demanded, she never complained whenever I gave her tasks to work on. She was one of the very few people who never hesitated when it came to acting, taking photos, and all the other stuff that other people never had the confidence to do.

Above is a short film, Five Simple Parts. It was our final project,

and Mikee was the star of the show. She was perfect.

I don't know what else to say but I do know one thing: Mikee touched my heart, too. She's one of the most special people in my entire life. We may not be best friends and we may not be the closest of friends, but I really do know her as one of the best people I've ever met.

Thank you, Mikee, for being a part of each and every one of us in our class. You will never be forgotten. Instead, remembered as the pretty, smart and funny girl we all loved to smile at and with in the most random moments. I feel so bad for not ever making a move to see you while you were sick, and I only texted you once the entire time. I'm so sorry, Mikee. I love you so much and I've missed you ever since you stopped going to school. You're in a better place now, and soon, we'll see you there again. Look down on us, guide us, okay? We'll always keep you in our hearts.

D'yan na lang tayo mag-shopping, Mikee. At least d'yan endless pera natin. Hahaha! I love you.

Uplate For An Update!

Corniest title ever, but I haven't blogged in awhile even though I feel like blogging almost every time. I just haven't had the energy nor the time lately since so many things are in my head. Just wanted to update you guys on some things that I've been up to!

Well, as some of you may know, I'm now part of a very talented creative team. It's made up of writers, models, and amateur photographers like myself. We're quite big compared to the teams I've seen, since there are six of us. We've put up a big advocacy which I'll be talking so much more about this week since we're launching our Facebook page in a few days! We're really excited about all of it 'cause it's something that we didn't expect to be so big - we were simply planning a shoot then ended up starting an advocacy, which we're very proud of. So please, support us and follow us for updates on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TBM_2011 You can also see who the members of our creative team - slash - advocacy are there 'cause we posted our promotional photos there already (our current Facebook profile photos lol)!

School has been pretty good. My minor subjects are slowly disappearing and my major subjects are kicking us pretty well. We stress over them (major subjects) so bad every week 'cause we're not so used to having so many of them. Well, they're only three but you catch my drift! I love them all though, except one of them causes us so much stress that we all feel like we'd die of fear every time we have that class. Aside from that, I'm beginning to enjoy my classes since we're getting so close to be real Mass Communication students with all the work we're doing. And I even got good recognition in one of my major classes and it feels so good to be recognized because of something that I love to do (writing). Oh, and we've been on already two class trips because of our major classes and they were both really good.

I also had a hiatus on my photo blog which was very disappointing. But now I've started to post every week! I've done it twice now and I think it's going pretty good. See, I've been making it a point to take photos as much as possible so at the end of the week, I compile them, edit then post them on my photo blog! I find it very comforting and fulfilling 'cause I feel guilty when I don't take as much photos anymore. So many things to take photos of, I feel like it all goes to such a waste when I don't have my camera with me. Also, I feel more motivated to bring my camera with me even if it's heavy because I feel like I'm putting so many people down when I don't post at the end of the week lol. I'm totally craving for a big shoot though, with models, props and so many clothes! Ah, heaven. I really want to have a shoot soon, when all the school stress dies down. So pleasseee contact me at kelorajpicson@gmail.com if you want to have a shoot with me as your photographer. I have so many pegs in my mind, it's crazy!

There are so many things I want to do, but time and responsibilities prohibit me mostly. And I want to buy so many things but lack of money prohibits me from that, too. Hahaha! I'm so glad though that I finally had the energy or the drive to blog even just a little to update you guys! Thank you for continuing to view my blog, it is greatly appreciated. I'll update more 'cause I feel like I'm abandoning my blog which isn't really part of the memo.

Take care all, stay dry from the storm!

Here's my promotional photo and first time to model ever in my life. It's for TBM, friends. Always for TBM. Hahaha!

Photography: Liz Pasana

Make-up: Liz Pasana's cousin

(I'll update this when I talk to Liz! Sorry!)

Styling: Andi Altamira

Day 05: My never-ending playlist.

I've been procrastinating all day for this post. My mind has been on a roller coaster today - up down up down, WEEEEEE! So I can't seem to figure out my mood. There is one thing I'm sure of, though. I've been feeling so thankful all day. Okay, end of intro.

Day 5: A song to match your mood

So today, I've had pretty much the most awesome day in history of Karissa Elora Picson. When I use the laptop, my TweetDeck is always open while I'm on Google Chrome, Facebook-ing, blog-hopping, YouTube... You know, the works. Anyway, AJ Rafael, one of my biggest music influences ever, tweeted that he was at the Life Cafe with some friends. I replied back, "Life Cafe sounds so RENT." 'cause you know, I love RENT. I was playing a game on Addicting Games when TweetDeck appears and there's AJ's tweet, quoting my tweet and then a reply. I was like...

While playing a game on Addicting Games

It was truly a "WHUT?!" moment, my friends. It truly was. So anyway, I didn't reply back 'cause I had no idea what to say. Then this dude replies, still joining me in the conversation and then I still don't reply. Then an hour later, AJ replies to the guy's tweet, STILL joining me in the conversation. The guy said something weird which I did not agree to, so I had to "defend" myself saying I didn't say anything. I tried to strike up a conversation and I said, "I wish there was a place here in the Philippines like Life Cafe" without thinking he would reply... BUT HE STILL DID. Crazy, right? He's already replied to me before, back in February 2010 when I asked if he still had gigs while he was here in the Philippines. This was magical though, 'cause it was like we were chatting. My friend even tweeted me and mentioned how lucky I was, I was iike, I KNOW RIGHT.

Another awesome thing that happened was that, well, you know, I PASSED MY BIOLOGY CLASS.

This "I'M THE BOSS" or "LIKE A BOSS"

thing is getting to me

So, yeah. I passed Biology. That's all I'm going to say about that now. Kthnxbye!

The next best thing happened...

I tweeted STATUS Magazine yesterday, just to give them a little heads up on something. I didn't really need a reply so I didn't really expect anything. Then I saw that they Direct Messaged me on Twitter and I was just thinking that because I'm following them, they can send me a DM. I didn't mind much, I just wanted to reply. So, I did through a DM too. Then I realized, WAIT. I can't DM them unless they're following me, too. So I opened Twitter.com and everything to check my followers, and VOILA...

They're following me <3

MY FAVORITE MAGAZINE, IS FOLLOWING ME.

Which is so freaking awesome, 'cause I don't care that I'm only one out of the 2000+ people they're following, 'cause one out of those 2000+ Twitter people is my crush... OKAY GOING OFF TOPIC. Sorry. So because I realized this, I tweeted it, then they re-tweeted me and then replied. My gash. We began talking a bit through Direct Message, but just six messages. How awesome.

Then another good thing happened, a very pretty girl from school who my friends and I like so much (she's talented, sweet and very nice) was online today and since she was posting things about STATUS a lot, I chatted with her. She replied and she was sooo nice. I even got touched 'cause I introduced myself and she was like, "Yeah, I know :)"

Manny Pacquiao, fangirling. #winning

So I've been pretty much thankful today, 'cause God granted me all these blessings in one day, in my own home! So happy for this day. :)

Praise the Lord!

Oh, and my parents are drinking wine right now... And they're sharing the blessing with me, too.

Hello again!

I know what you're thinking: "Another month-long hiatus?" I'm sorry! I've just been either really busy with school, lazy or hanging with the loves of my life. My apologies, dear readers. Anyway, let me tell you some highlights from the past month:

Well, along with some of my blockmates who are very close to me, I joined our school's Mass Communication department's main event: Karol Awards 2011. The Karol Awards has been going on for several years now and it's somewhat like the Grammy's or the Oscar's for us. There's a different category for every level: For us first years, we had to make Music Videos, for second years, they made Public Service Advertisements, third years made short films and finally, the fourth year students made documentaries. By the way, not all students were recquired to join the contest, but for fun and experience, my friends joined.

So my friends and I joined and we had to make a production name and after so many ridiculous names, we ended up with "TULALA PRODUCTIONS" 'cause we were all staring at each other while trying to think of a catchy name. Cliche, right? But we were losing minutes so we stuck with it. After that, with the theme, "Sino at Ano Ako sa Panahon ng Globalisasyon", we had to think of a song title, and we chose "Musika". Tulala Prod. went through two concepts: One, involved a boy and a girl who were supposedly childhood friends who grew apart and the girl was being all American and stuff because of the new trends. We were having a hard time bringing out the Filipino in the song so we had to think of a different concept. Our second and final one was to just make it any other proud Filipino song and it was written by my friends and co-Tulala prod., Grace Villanueva and Angela Catapang. We didn't have a lot of time so we decided to keep our video simple. I was busy with my mom's surprise party that day, so the rest of Tulala Prod. went to Legarda and took videos of some people there who they asked to say some things. Here's the video:

During the awards night, the attire had to be Modern Filipiniana. *clears throat* is this Modern Filipiniana enough?

My blockmates who started and finished the entire night with me.

My lovely girls: Liz, Chiara, Han and Karryl.

Tulala Productions:

Mikee, Danica, Grace, Trish, Angela, Chiara, me.

The people who have helped me keep my

sanity for the past few months.

My first Karol Awards will stay in my heart for the rest of my life! So memorable and fun. Although we didn't win any award, it was fine with me because the experience and the bonding was enough for me.

We've been planning to have a party for the experience but we were so busy finishing so much school work after the Awards; we had our Filipino research paper and defense, English term paper, Introduction to Mass Communication reports and projects, finals, clearance, blah blah blah! Super stressful. But I guess it was all good 'cause I finally felt that college feeling.

Thank you Lord, for a good month. :)

And hello again, bloggers!