August 2012 – tinamats.com

Potted Potter!

August 30, 2012August 30, 2012 Tina 2 Comments

Also known as: A review of Potted Potter Manila

Totally honest moment: I had no idea what Potted Potter was until I received an email from Ticketworld two weeks ago inviting me to watch the show and be a Tweet Seater. Before I explain what a Tweet Seater is, I must say that that last time I watched a stage production was two years ago? I haven’t been able to watch any because of budget and because I never get to catch the shows I want with the people I want to watch it with.

But anyway, this email came and they were inviting me to be one of the Tweet Seaters — meaning I would tweet the show while I watch. Seems like an interesting thing, right? I wasn’t sure if I would get it, seeing as it was on a weekday, and I didn’t know if I was willing to commute all the way to the other side of the city just to watch a 7o-minute show and then go home alone.

And then Filipino ReaderCon came and I experienced the euphoria of having our hash tag trend. Of course, it wasn’t just my doing, but I felt the thrill of tweeting and seeing all of it come to fruition, so I figured, Hey, maybe I should give this TweetSeat thing a chance.

So I replied to the email, and to my delight, they asked if I know someone who can join me. I immediately asked my best friend, who finally gave in and joined me when I told him that we didn’t have my pay for our tickets (which made me more delighted — hello, free tickets!).

To cut the long introduction short, my best friend and I caught the opening night of Potted Potter in Manila last Tuesday night. I was almost late (thank you, public transportation and Metro Manila traffic), but who cares? I had the most hilarious 70 minutes ever.

From the official website:

POTTED POTTER — The Unauthorized Harry Experience â€“ A Parody by Dan and Jeff takes on the ultimate challenge of condensing all seven Harry Potter books (and a real life game of Quidditch) into seventy hilarious minutes. Even if you donâ€™t know the difference between a horcrux and a Hufflepuff, POTTED POTTER will make you roar with laughter.

I didn’t know what to expect when I got in the theater (exceptÂ maybe for sexy British accents…but you didn’t hear me…oh wait, I tweeted about that, nvm), but I was ready to tweet quotes and fun stuff. This task proved to be a bit hard because I couldn’t stop laughing as soon as the show started. Potted Potter in Manila stars Jesse Briton and Gary Trainor, one of Dan and Jeff’s touring cast, and they were excellent. A Harry Potter fan would definitely appreciate it, but if you haven’t finished reading all the books and you don’t feel like finishing it (which is some kind of sacrilege, really), then watching Potted Potter will keep you up to speed…with aching jaws from all the laughter. :D

Long Weekends

August 30, 2012August 30, 2012 Tina 3 Comments

Also known as: Two long weekends deserve a post

I’ve long moved on from writing diary-type entries on my personal blog because I figure no one else really cares about it except for me. I mean, even I don’t read a lot of blogs that write their days in detail, so I figure who would bother to read that on mine, right? (Unless you’re a stalker. Or you have a crush on me. Or both. Erm.)

But anyway, since we just went throughtwo long weekends in the country, I realized I had reasons to blog about them. In an almost diary-like entry because..well, how else can I remember them? Normally long weekends just pass by like a blur. For other people, long weekends are a time to go out of town, but because I’ve never been lucky with booking cheap flights during long weekends, I never did that. I did have two full long weekends, actually, so instead of going out of town, I filled them with all sorts of activities (other than reading and sleeping). So let’s start.

Filipino ReaderCon 2012

I wrote about the event in detail in my book blog, so this will be more on my reflections on the event. I think I can sum it up in a sentence?

I loved every bit of it.

I knew taking on bigger responsibilities for the ReaderCon this year was a bit daunting, and I was kind of scared that I wouldn’t be able to do it, but I was surprised at how it wasn’t that stressful at all. Sure, there were many times I was scrambling to write blog entries for the site and I feel like I wasn’t able to do all the things I should do, but overall, it was really my kind of thing for my kind of event. I loved it, and it made me realize yet again how much I love words and anything related to it. I had another one of those “I was made for this” moments while I was roaming around the venue during the event.

Don’t you love it when you get those moments?

WYD 2011 Team Reunion

It’s been a year, as I posted a few weeks back, but our reunion almost didn’t push through because of so many conflicting schedules.But we had to, seeing as it was our anniversary and all. Thank goodness we pushed through, because it totally sealed my weekend.

It’s hard to describe why and how I became good friends with these people, especially since I only knew one of them when I joined them for WYD 2011. Of course, being with them for 2 straight weeks is enough to tie me to them. But I don’t know, I feel like our friendship is deeper than normal, and it’s not like I know these people that well.

wydreunion — WYD 2011 reunion! (Photo c/o En)

Perhaps it’s because our friendship does lie deeper, because we’re all anchored on that experience that is anchored on, well, God. I’m no stranger to friendships that were formed in church communities and while I haven’t been in touch with other old friends I met during my YFC days, I knew that the friendships I had with them were the real ones and they were the ones that made me grow in so many ways. And I guess my WYD friends count as that kind of friends, too — but I do hope I keep them for life. :)

I loved our how night ended with a prayer and how each and every one of us were prayed for. What was prayed for me, you ask? No, don’t bother asking. ;) But I really, really appreciate it, and it’s nice to know that I’ve got these people praying for that aspect of my life. :)

Relax

August 24, 2012June 17, 2013 Tina 5 Comments

Also known as: On relaxing. And…chilling out

I have a problem with my mind sometimes: it runs too fast.

I wonder if it’s possible to invent something that could turn off certain parts of the brain the moment it starts to over think. I swear I’ll be the first one to get that.

* * *

Sometime two weeks ago I had a legit asthma attack because of stress. It wasn’t even the kind of work-related stress, which was a good and lovely and valid reason if you ask me. It was something a lot more…shallow. And really unnecessary because I brought the stress upon myself, and when things finally cleared later on, it was all for nothing.

I was so annoyed at myself then. I hated how the moment I saw that cause of stress, my mind went a mile a minute, leaving me scrambling behind and unable to catch it. I went from Point A to Point…I don’t know, S? in a matter of seconds. And what I thought, I cannot un-think. It was just so annoying because I just totally stressed myself out.

It sucks.

And with that stress, comes some kind of fear. The one that stops me cold, and just made me wish that I could burrow somewhere and hide, because I don’t think I can handle it if my fears were true, and I wasn’t even sure what exactly I was afraid of. No wonder I got an asthma attack.

With that, my friends usually tell me one thing:

Relax.

Of course…it takes me a while to do that.