half-blank
Hello friend, thanks for opening! Welcome to the second half of the year, I guess! As such, doing a bit of taking stock. I hope you find something worthwhile here. -K
The artist Austin Kleon says he usually looks at July 2nd – the 50% mark of his calendar – with a question: Is the year half-empty or half-full?
I’d been a bit busy on Friday so perhaps that wasn’t a good time to evaluate–after all, I may have been busy with a bajillion things at the moment, but would that have meant a “half-full” assessment was warranted? What makes a half-year “full”?
Well, if I were to mention a couple of notable stuff during my first two quarters they would be:
- Our Q1 move and everything that supported it
- The summer surge and everything that was necessary to survive it
- Tingle Anthology release in time for Pride
Do I feel accomplished? Yes, maybe? Happy to report that in the first half of the year, we’d been able to at least set up a more homey work from home experience for us after moving to a different room. In all of my years living in Makati, this is also the biggest window view I have had the pleasure to look out of so far – a huge blessing for this period of our lives that we’re spending mostly indoors.
And I think now that burnout is the default setting, we should all be kinder to ourselves and perhaps take stock of how far we’ve come, despite difficulties.
In Austin Kleon’s case, however, the answer to the question is neither: The year is neither half-empty nor half-full.
It’s half-blank.
How are you filling the rest of the canvas?
Speaking of how to fill the rest of the canvas, here’s another thing worth thinking about: This time next year, we’d already have elected a new set of President and Vice President – or so I hope! Still thinking about my Elections 2022 project. I am just very very overwhelmed as to where to start.
Some notable efforts I have joined instead:
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Team Leni Robredo, which is a nationwide group of volunteers working to promote the Vice President – they remind me of movements like ARMY Bayanihan, where people who share common interests work toward a common goal. I think they’re off to a good start. I mean, if the devil is out there using presidential resources to go from LGU to LGU, North to South – why shouldn’t a nationwide volunteer corps be a thing? Anyway – go sign up on their Facebook Page: fb.com/teamlenirobredo. They do take personal information, so take this as a caveat, though I think there’s nothing I have given out to this group that I have not given to some other platform in exchange for goods or services.
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Team Chel Diokno - Here’s another person I’m rooting for. It broke my heart when he lost the 2019 senatorial elections, so I promised myself I will help him again whatever his bid may be in 2022. His social media presence usually tackles practical legal matters, and yes it now includes a TikTok channel – because, you know, why the fuck not. Anyway, you can sign up via their Google Form: bit.ly/volunteer4chel or their website diokno.ph/volunteer. (Btw, diokno.ph is such a cool domain.)
Media recs
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We’re halfway through the K-drama “Her Private Life” on Netflix, which stars Park Min-young (whom we watched before in What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim – also a riot) as an art curator who leads a double life as a passionate fangirl during her spare time. As with most K-dramas we’ve followed, this is just (chef’s kiss) so damn good, storytelling-wise. Can’t explain it without spoiling the good stuff – the best part about it is that we dove into this knowing little else apart from the Netflix summary. What a joy it has been so far. Bonus points if you are also, actually, a fangirl in real life (because we are.)
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Zhang Ziyi was in Godzilla King of Monsters. That’s it. That’s the rec. It just occurred to me that I haven’t watched any Godzilla movie (for shame!) before this one, and it has both Zhang Ziyi AND Ken Watanabe in it. (We also kept cheering for Godzilla and calling him “Big Boi!” every time he was on-screen. Years of dog and cat videos have broken us, obviously.)
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The Jumanji reboot is basically just someone’s fantasy of taking over The Rock’s body in a video game. The way we howled when we saw Nick Jonas, though.
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Speaking of The Rock: He truly can do any reboot, including Baywatch.
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Speaking of old movies: We re-watched Men In Black and I therefore conclude I remember NOTHING from the first time I watched it, apart from Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in black suits.
What easy-to-the-brain movies have you been bingeing lately? :D We are partial to aliens, robots, huge explosions, and women kicking ass.
Speaking of: Gunpowder Milkshake YES PLEASE FOR SCIENCE
GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE Trailer (2021) - YouTube
Official Gunpowder Milkshake Movie Trailer 2021 | Subscribe ➤ https://abo.yt/ki | Karen Gillan Movie Trailer | Release: 14 Jul 2021 | More https://KinoCheck....
Thank you for making it this far! I hope you have a restful weekend and a great second half to come ♥
This week’s favorite meme:
Pls accept my humble offer hehehehe
XO,
K