All hail the beauty regime

merriam-webster is quite clear on this, and so am i.

re·gime (n.)
\rā-ˈzhēm, ri- also ri-ˈjēm\
a: mode of rule or management
b: a form of government (a socialist regime)
c: a government in power (predicted that the new regime would fall)
d: a period of rule
i.e. "The Philippines was placed under martial law during the Marcos regime."

versus

regimen (n.)
\ˈre-jə-mən also ˈre-zhə-\
a: a systematic plan (as of diet, therapy, or medication) especially when designed to improve and maintain the health of a patient
b: a regular course of action and especially of strenuous training
i.e. "Her daily skincare regimen includes at least five different whitening products."

i think somebody forgot to tell the singaporeans. not only have i heard "regimen" being swapped for its politically-oriented sound-alike in conversation by the locals ("swimming is good exercise regime, lor") , i've seen it published in more beauty and fitness articles than i can count on both hands. i guess it's easy for the average joe to confuse the terms, but i would have expected more from editors, particularly of some of the international glossies they have around here.

my mental nitpicking has finally found a voice simply because my first assignment for a local mag involves writing about a skin "regime". yep, that word appeared on my job brief. and now i am faced with an interesting professional dilemma. do i:

a. sell out and use "regime" just to fit in? (the very thought makes my scalp bristle)
b. avoid using the word altogether? (a truly creative exercise as it is a skincare article)
c. use "regimen" and meekly await the inevitable striking of the n?
d. use "regimen" and eagerly await my chance to educate an editor? (we all love to be right, don't we?)

i feel like i'm going to get spotted and crucified by a local for criticizing locals, so i'll say this as well: i've found extremely brilliant beauty writers in singaporean magazines. the type who'll leave copy editors and writers with their mouths open, or drive housewives out to the nearest department store without having to drop the ubiquitous word, "must-have". (i happen to be both a writer and a housewife, so i know what i'm talking about). they may have to share space with the barely concealed press releases, but they exist nevertheless.

now if you'll excuse me, i've got a regime to attack.

Kitchen kakikayan

i found these random photos while cleaning out my camera's memory card. these are the fun kinds of things i like to do in the kitchen, when i'm not more seriously trying to follow in the footsteps of jamie oliver, my ultimate culinary crush. really, i never thought puttering around in the kitchen could be so much fun.

1) birthday cookie

we celebrated marlon's birthday (march 23) with a quiet evening at home watching stranger than fiction. in the middle of the scene where maggie gyllenhaal's character, who is a baker, offers will ferrell, who is auditing her bakeshop, a plate of fresh chocolate chip cookies, i suddenly had an overwhelming urge to break out the cookie mix and bake.

good old betty crocker was a no-brainer: just add two eggs, water and butter. now i understand why maggie randomly bakes at odd hours of the night, like at 1am during our kiddie sleepover. it's quite therapeutic, you don't need a whole set of implements and skills, and the smell is dah-vine.


ah shet. kaya pala leave spaces between cookies. our dozen or so cookies fused together to become a giant sheet of sugar. so i decided to decorate it and hit two birds with one stone: hubby's birthday and cookie craving.


as the syrup was a bridal shower gift, it may have been intended for less wholesome pursuits.

2) mint and lemon water

way back when we started dating, i knew marlon had major houseband potential. however, nothing prepared me for the day when he would chop up some fresh mint, slice up some lemons, stuff them into a bottle of water and store it in the fridge.


3) brainless grilled fish

i got this recipe out of my favorite cookbook, superfast foods. season fish steaks (white fish works best, but salmon and tuna are okay too) with salt and pepper, slap them on a greased grill pan (foil is optional but helps), spread dijon mustard and grated parmesan on top, and grill in an oven for ten to fifteen minutes. gaaaah ang sarap. virtually no oil pa.


you can substitute any type of mustard and any type of cheese. i personally would like to experiment with a two- or three-cheese variation. if you don't have an oven, you can even do this in an oven toaster!

ang saya saya!

Back to school?

hello, i'm back in singapore again.

there's a lot to write about, so much has been going on. lately i figured out what's been stopping me from blogging more regularly is this feeling that i have to write about significant past events before writing about what i really feel like writing about at the moment. so i'm putting that aside for now to say...

damn was it hot today. hahaha.

i'm finally making use of the reading corner in our bedroom to, well, read. i have an industrial fan aimed at me and am dredging the bottom of a glass of iced kapeng barako.

i am also surfing for arts courses. over the past few weeks the possibility of being an illustrator has opened up for me. i've been drawing and painting since i was small, although i haven't been as dedicated to it as i was in childhood. while racking my brains for new ways to find work here in singapore, i figured i might work on building up a portfolio of work as an illustrator and see where i can ply it.

also, i've always thought that if i would ever go back to school, i would take fine arts or design. and here seems like a nice place to do it. hindi ako masyadong natuwa sa mga nakita ko sa national museum nila, pero one thing that really strikes about singapore is its design savvy. i love old things and i love manila's cultural mishmash of kitsch, but i also like this aspect of living in such a young city. things are so new and so... designed.

so i'm contemplating plowing some of my earnings (yes, i'm about to have earnings very soon) into a short course. so far i've turned up courses on abstract painting, basic western art (as opposed to chinese i guess) and visual communication at nafa, a school in a part of town that i really, really like.

can't decide quite yet. the visual communication course seems to be the best compromise of "wishful" and "useful" in that it complements my experience and will allow me to invent myself as a writer/designer. my preference in art runs to rather graphic styles as well. but at $1,200 per term (and the likely necessity of a mac) it seems quite pricey. i'm not making that much... yet.

the abstract painting course's focus on exploration of materials intrigues me. it hints at collage, which is one of my favorite art forms. i would love to pick up some new perspectives and techniques that i can use. and at half the price of the viscomm course, it's beginning to look really, really good.

western art is just to really give me basic drawing skills and teach me to focus. i'm not particularly excited by it, but it could be really be useful.

i've been sidetracked by tempting little offbeat classes. like batik painting at the substation! but what the hell would i do with that, right?

Goodbye Nanay

my maternal grandmother, whom we called nanay, passed away in her sleep a little past midnight on wednesday. she had been confined in the hospital after coming down with a high fever the previous thursday, and had been showing signs of recovery despite being unconscious for several days. but our lord was kind, and took her painlessly and peacefully at the ripe, ripe old age of 94.

there are many other ways i've seen His kindness over the past few days. He also spared my mom from having to make any agonizing decisions over whether to keep her attached to all the medical equipment in the hospital in the hope of recovery, or simply to take her home and let the inevitable happen. i can say without a doubt He is truly wise, and makes the best decisions of all.

nanay has been one of the constants of my life, one of those that you think will never go away. she has lived with our family my -- and my sister's --- whole life.

this is the first time that i've faced a death in my own family. i was three when my dad died, so it was never really real for me.

there is much to say about nanay, and about the past few days, but i'll save that for when i get back. my sister and i flying home later tonight (after much wrestling with cebu pacific's insane ticketing system) to be with our mom, who is my biggest concern at this point. marlon will follow on a jetstar flight tomorrow morning. the funeral will be in my mom's home town of sta. cruz, laguna on sunday morning.

please say a prayer for nanay and our family. and when you do, please thank God for me -- for her long and full life, her peaceful and painless passing, and for the new angel who is now looking out for my family from a long-reserved, choice spot by His side.

Transliteration

omigod i can now blog in hindi characters! not that i actually know how to read indic script, but it's still pretty cool.

now i can also see what my dad's name (amitabha) looks like in this script. i've thought of getting this as a tattoo, but never knew what it would look like.

अमिताभा

tadaah!

okay fine matutulog na ako.

Oo nga naman

midnight chat with eena.

Deepa: wait i have to get it out right now -- i think the neighbors above us are having sex!!!! hahahahaha
Eena: hahahhaha
Deepa: i'm hearing pounding on the floor! hahahahaha!
Deepa: so sad. this is the first time i've heard sounds like this since we moved in in january!
Eena: baka naman nagp-pound ng pepper
Eena: haha
Deepa: ang laki naman ng pinangpa-pound ng pepper!
Deepa: and the layout of the condos is mostly the same, so bedroom din ang nasa ibabaw ko
Eena: ah ok. don't complain
Eena: you never know what the neighbors downstairs are thinking!

Alternate universe

it's funny. one of the reasons i was ecstatic to be assigned an episodic plug was because i thought it would be easy, and exactly like what i used to do for gma. in fact, those words have popped out of my mouth almost every time i talk about it to someone. but after day one on my first freelance promo project ever, i feel like i'm in an alternate universe.

and it's not bad at all. as i told marlon before he flew off to bangkok this evening, i wouldn't say it was easy, but i wouldn't say it was hard, either. the best thing about it, i think, is that i'm learning. and i know that short of a major fuckup, in at least ten days' time, i will have a piece of my work airing on international cable tv.

i showed up bright and early at the bda office (okay, 10am is not early by the standards of the working world), ready to view my episode of the show. already the jargon is different -- i "log" rather than timecode tapes, make a "log sheet" versus a shotlist, "cut" not script an episode, and produce a "promo" rather than a plug.

instead of a cushy little preview bay, i sat at a high stool in a room full of machines, kind of like the ingest room at post production. one thing carried over from my gma universe though -- the room for previewing tapes was ice cold!

and once i was in there, after a few minutes of help from lay tuan and a guy named raj, i was on my own. no george to teach me about the script format or make me watch showreels, or ayee to ask "sino si hagorn?" and cheer me on my first script, or bj to introduce me around the floor, or marian to squeal for voiceover scripts in the minutes leading up to 7pm, or dino to approve my script.

sorry for the digression. but god, i really miss my team right now.

anyway.

i took a loooong time (by my standards at least) to view the tape -- two hours. i felt rather self-conscious about the time i spent viewing, but i'd like to think the people at bda have better things to do than clock the freelancer. it was kind of like my very first day at gma, when i intently watched an entire half-hour episode of encantadia before going through it a second time to take down my shots. because, apart from the jog-shuttle mechanism on this particular betacam being a little hard to manipulate, my gulay, the material is awesome. complete, beautifully shot, and smart.

this is where i spin off into the aforementioned alternative universe. writing the script back in my cozy, cushy bedroom, i entered a new realm where lightning speed or ingenuously making do suddenly didn't matter so much anymore. with so much well-shot, well-written material on my hands, it began to occur to me that the challenge was not to be glib or slick, but to really figure out what the piece (the piece! i'm already talking about a television program like it's a piece of art!) intended to say, and say it in 30 seconds.

not to shock and awe, but to pare it down to one issue, and keep it simple.

to find the bottom line quickly, and to communicate it elegantly.

which i think i did, but i wouldn't be surprised if i didn't. i find myself excited to wake up tomorrow to find feedback of any sort in my inbox -- and not because i think i'll get rave reviews (although they would certainly be nice).

maybe because i want to know how close, or far, i've come to hitting the mark. because i want to find out my place in this universe, which is both strange and familiar. but most of all, because i want to learn.

Episode one

on wednesday, i woke up to a wonderful, wonderful email from lilian at bda.

i have this small project for you. it's an episodic promo. would you be interested in doing this?

in j's words, tumumbling ako. would i be interested in my first paying job in singapore EVAR?!?!?! hell yeah!

lilian went on to tell me the rate for a 30s episodic promo spot: SGD250. she explained, rather apologetically, that if they had a generic series plug for me to do, the rate would be much higher but would i mind? what did i think?

what did i think? forking over two hundred fifty dollars to a workaholic-turned-housewife who can barely afford to get herself a mani-pedi or keep herself stocked with magazines and chocolates (my weekly must-have luhos) without dipping into the hubby's pocket is like offering a glass of water to a man in the desert.

and two hundred fifty dollars for an episodic? dios mio, marimar! ina-outsource pa ba 'yon? that's nearly a third of my monthly salary at gma for something i used to do every single feckin' day! (and on really long days, i could do literally half a dozen episodics in a day!)

put it this way: two hundred fifty dollars for an hour of logging tape. maybe another hour of scripting -- at most (this generous speed assumes that i am practically brain dead, wear lead weights on my fingers and take a languorous snack break). on my first day at gma, i wrote my first script in ten minutes. and i knew nothing about the job or the show. my fingers were literally trembling as i typed.

then maybe another half hour each for revisions (if any) and brainstorming with/briefing the graphic designer (which used to take me and charlie eons). here i'll have to supervise the voiceover session and edit session, which i never did back home, but that's just another two to three hours tops, five if things go badly or slowly.

so, total it up and it works out to two hundred fifty dollars for less than eight hours of exactly the same type of work i used to do (and love to do) and the chance to wedge my foot in bda's door. who am i to complain?

wait, it gets better. the next day, bda's production manager lay tuan emailed me with the details.

i'm doing a promo for THE BBC!

the promo spot i'm doing is for an episode of BBC's horizon. (clicky on the linky. the promo for the memory episode is awesome.) and i have ten days to do it! kakaloka! toto, we're not in gma anymore!

first of all, i actually received a production schedule for an episodic. at gma, you're fortunate to even get a job order. second, the schedule stretches out over ten days from viewing and timecoding to final edit and dub out (or as they say here, dump out). the long gap between scripting and edit is for client approval and revision. back home, the faster the better! episodics have been known to be viewed, scripted and edited within hours.

i got all my instructions (plus a couple of sample promo spots and a nice tip from lay tuan to bring a jacket) last week, but i'm still thrilled and delighted. i feel totally vindicated to have held out for (and pursued) work that i really love and can get super duper excited about. i don't think i would be in this big a tizzy if i had sold out for an easy-come job like... i don't know, a tindera at an estee lauder beauty counter. which i seriously considered for... one whole afternoon. haha!

tomorrow's the big day! i plan to wear my gray team manila shirt (reprezzzzent y'all!). and right before i step into the bda office, i will put on my nice, new, hard-won hat -- you know, the freelance on-air promo writer/producer one.

*kilig* i can't wait.

A tale of two interviews, continued

interview #2: beverly

departure time: 930am, 1.5 hours prior

mode of transportation: shuttle bus to mrt station, mrt to toa payoh bus interchange, bus # 145 to tanjong pagar road

background research: i was asked to visit five portals/websites for women and be ready to discuss what i liked or disliked about them. it was a surprisingly easy task -- at some point, i've actually have been a regular visitor to three out of five of them: glam, daily candy and ivillage. (remember those superfun virtual makeovers? those were from ivillage.) one was a fun new discovery, fab sugar, and the last was the beverly site itself. it was, i think, the most reading i've ever done for an interview -- and i have four legal sheets of notes to prove it.

i also had to put together a writing portfolio -- i laid out and printed most of my pieces from the star (i rarely kept up with my articles when they came out in print, so all i had were soft copies), plus the things i wrote for penshoppe, wedding essentials, manila bulletin, candy and gma, and stuffed them into a clearbook.

outfit: cream, brown and pink printed wrap dress from folded and hung. i love this dress, it's so comfy and easy to wear. wore it with my vintage rose pendant and leopard-print heels.

took this photo in the only clean corner of the closet (on marlon's side nonetheless!). in fairness mukhang may blue filter!

the proceedings: after half an hour on the bus, i started to worry that i would be late. so i brought out my trusty street map to try and figure out where i was and how long it would take me to get to tanjong pagar. the skinny, reserved-looking chinese man sitting next to me seemed to notice. he leaned over and mumbled: "are you going to chinatown?"

"sorry?" i said politely, as i could barely hear him. this was to become an often-repeated word in the course of our conversation.

he repeated his question. "no, i'm going to tanjong pagar," i replied.

two-minute silence. then he mumbled something.

"sorry, what?" speak up man!

"half an hour," he repeated.

"oh, it'll take me half an hour to get there from here?" darn, i was going to be late.

we rode on in silence. "is the weather ok?" said my seatmate suddenly.

"what? uh, yeah it's fine," i said, mystified.

"if it's too hot for you, it's ok with me to swap seats." i had the window seat.

"no, no, it's fine, i like the sun," i replied, giving him a little smile. silence again. then -- "do you always take the bus?"

"huh? uh, no, this is my first time to take the bus to tanjong pagar," i said distractedly, as i riffled through my notebook for the number of my interviewer. i had to tell them i would be late.

"oh." he fell silent. "do you take the train?"ano ba 'to, twenty questions? animal, mineral, vegetable? i gave him a small, tight nod. pause. "mumble-mumble-this-mumble-train."

"sorry, what?"

"we can do this again on a train," he said.

ano kamo? i must have misheard. alam mo naman ang ingles ng mga taga-rito. "yes, you're right, i can do this again on a train," i said, somewhere between forced politeness and complete befuddlement. "maybe next time i'll take the mrt coming down here."

our charming little chat was interrupted by a call from my interviewer. after i hung up, my seatmate shook his head. "we can do this again on a train," he repeated, louder this time.

i believe i frowned at him. "do WHAT?"

he smiled a little turtle-like smile. "what we're doing now."

aym zorehhh! bakit biglang may "we"?!!! hindi ka cute!!! at may asawa na ako!!!

by divine intervention, the bus had stopped at the landmark indicated by my interviewer. i grabbed my stuff and quickly got off the bus.

and he followed me off! he walked toward me, calling, "this is not your stop! this is not it! this is not it!"

che! paano mo alam! ikaw ba si madam auring?! i quickened my pace, dialing my interviewer as he gabbered on behind me, and just praying that he would leave me alone. i couldn't believe he got off the bus with me.

when i looked behind me after getting directions over the phone, he was gone. thankfully.

when i got to the office, it turned out that the man i had been talking to over the phone the wasn't person who had set up my interview. and the man who set up my interview had forgotten that he had set it up at all. in fact, he wasn't even in the office -- and wouldn't be back that day!

ganda.

so the only interview i had that day was from the creep on the bus! i do not want to know for what position that would have been.

the verdict: that did not go well at all. let's try that again, shall we?

A tale of two interviews

last week i had my first ever interviews in singapore. two of them! a monday 11:30 a.m. with bda, and a thursday 11 a.m. with a (from the looks of it, new-ish) women's beauty/fashion/wellness portal called beverly, where i applied as a freelance editor.

i was so excited, i planned both of them obsessively: departure times, routes and modes of transportation, background research, and of course, the all-important outfits. i even printed a copy of my cv to bring with me to the actual interviews, which i NEVER did for an interview back home.

anyway, this is how it went.

interview #1: BDA

departure time: 9:30 a.m. (yes, two hours in itty-bitty singapore. can you say praning? this at least gave me time for a hazelnut latte at tcc.)

mode of transportation: shuttle bus from condo to mrt station, mrt to somerset, taxi to bda's office on kim yam road

background research: hooo boy. major kapraningan here. apart from looking up BDA's clients and viewing their showreel online, i wrote down in my little notebook (just to refresh my memory) how i worked in gma, what i contributed to the team, how i came up with ideas, the challenges that i faced getting each of the 10 plugs on my showreel produced and how i overcame them, positive feedback from my boss... GAWD. what a geek.

outfit: black architectural-cum-smock-type dress from jonker gallery in malacca (my sister has the exact same one in white and told me not to wear it to an interview) plus a cobalt blue shrug with gold nautical-type buttons. wore it with my favorite vintage gold rose necklace and very new open-toe black patent wedges, which killed me -- i had major breaking-in blisters by 11 am. thankfully i am a whiz at minimizing a blister-induced limp, so nobody at bda even noticed.

the proceedings: it was less of an interview and more of a very, very nice long chat with lilian, bda's business director. i started to relax when i realized that there was so much to learn about producing promos outside of gma and the philippines -- and i might as well just soak it up. she didn't even ask to see my showreel!

after an hour-long gabfest, i found myself getting flutter-in-the-guts excited about getting the chance to do promos for all these different shows from all over the world. yup, it's confirmed: nothing gets me going like tv does. i felt vindicated that i stuck to my guns about holding out for work that really, really gets me excited -- such a huge departure from the "i'll take anything" me of yore. i was just overwhelmed that i was even just sitting there. i wonder if lilian got even the slightest bit creeped out by my shining eyes and dopey smile.

and... they have a cat in the office! a huge fat gray adorable cat! it was sleeping in a basket under lilian's desk the whole time i was there. when i saw it, i just melted. it was like... hot damn, can it get any better than this? hahaha!

outcome: i am now part of their pool of freelance creatives! yay! go me! basically it means they'll call me if there's a script to be written or produced that their in-house team can't take on, or if they want me to pitch an idea for a project. super excited to see what will come my way!

verdict: worth every single feckin' blister.

next up: interview #2.