oi facebook…. import this damn blog!!!

This is not a good bye, but a thanks (If you don’t know, I’m heading back to T.O. on Nov 9).

Thank you.

Sarah, Banj, Margaux, JB, Tsoy, Skratchmark, Ace, Teaze, Jena……

You guys are a truly a family. Thank you welcoming me in your circle and let me do what I do…… You guys let me do what I do and let me try to survive in a world where everybody is trying to live in this overcrowded but beautiful place they call The Philippines. You have welcomed me with open arms and let me try to succeed what YOU guys want to do. You do and create things what YOU want to do. You use YOUR skills, YOUR passions, albeit, Dj’ing, networking, talking .. or whatever and use it to your advantage make a career out of it. My stay here has shown me there are people like me who think, act and feel the same way. You guys gave me a shot and let me try to work some of my magic…..

The whole idea of doing what you like to do and seeing your labors come into fruition is part of an enjoyable life. And from what I have witnessed these couple of months…… you enjoy what you guys do. In the everyday hustle and bustle it is already difficult as is.. in a third world it is especially harder….. but it is easier if you also have friends outside your immediate family to look to. You have inspired me to do better, inspired to do things my own way (i guess thats the filipino way) and inspired be to get my brain going once again. I know bigger and better things will come around your way. You guys are GOOD at what you do!!

Who would’ve known search on Facebook and an email have led me to this circle. thank you for sharing a drink. thank you for sharing laughter. thank you for sharing joy. thank you for being you. thank you for showing me filling station!!!

see y’all around… either physically or on the online world!

payce.

justDABE!

Trying to make a living here in the Philippines is tought. Being the 12th most populous country in the world (I was reading some facts in the newspaper) and about 40% of the population lives on less than $2.00 a day it is a difficult task to find decent paying work in this world my parents, grandparents and my ancestors have lived. My attempt to live here in the Philippines like I was living back in Canada is a privileged one. I am very very very grateful at the opportunities living in a world where i dont have to look for a place to sleep or when my next meal is going to come from. I was lucky enough to have a group of people who let me do my thing. I was given a salary to live on for the very few months that I have been here. I was to provide some graphic material for an events and promotional company who was well connected in the entertainment industry. There are no handouts in this country. You have to find each and every peso you earn, even on the corporate level. I even found it difficult finding the work i have grown a career into. Technology that have been widely available for the masses in the 1st world is only in its infantile stages. The numerous amount of agencies that I have talked to ALL of interest in a skill that i posses but dont know what to do with. Imagine this scenario….. pretend you a person who is active in all kind of sport, baseball, tennis, cricket, whatever. And you want to go find a competitive match to join. And all you can find is a basketball court playing with a deflating basketball. You go and find this game and ask if you can join. And they ask you if you have an extra ball you they can play with, you say “yeah of course, i have an extraball”… but the kind of ball you have is an american football. What do you do? what do you with game you want to join in but really can’t paly to your full potential? Do you continue playing with the deflating basketball or do you show them how to use an american football? Or do you use the american football as a basketball?

are filipinos closed-minded?

am i that naive to think to live and work here in the Philippines? I understand making the equivalent that I would make in a 1st world country would damn nearly be impossible. I know there is money circulating around, but its a closer-knit circle. but its there…..

One thing i’ve learned here in the third-world, in asia, particularly…. they are relatively close-minded in general. …”they just wanna follow the white formula… even though they have all the resources in this area to be self sufficient… the west depends more on the 3rd world than the other way around… but if u tell ppl that they look at u like ur talking crazy” -Tahric. A canadian living in Taiwan.

maybe its my pride but I do not want to be only ‘known’ as a call-center agent, a nurse, a caregiver, doctor, dentist, pharmacist…… we are much more than that. Why can’t we be ’successful’ in other professions? .. then again its what ‘you’ deem successful…. I am not successful in many things, I do things to the best of my abilities.

i’ll figure it out one day….

I was recently looking online to get tickets for the one of the most memorable boxing matches in recent history on December 6, 2008 in Las Vegas . I am by no means a boxing aficionado however I do know, he is currently the best pound 4 pound fighter and is one of the greatest Filipino sport icon Manny ‘Pac-Man’ Pacquiao will step into the boxing ring against a mexican boxing icon namely,  the ‘Golden Boy’ Oscar dela Hoya. When the fight was first announced in the Philippines there is a great buzz in the country, a $100 Million dollar fight and an unofficial holiday for everybody in the country and its country-men around the world.

This announcement is not-so-new news but I just realized this…..  they both recorded albums… now picture this. Magic Mic contest! Pick 5 songs, when the score is tallied get throwout the highest and lowest score then average the 3 songs. The highest score wins!….  LOL!

Here’s the proof.

Manny Pacquiao - Laban Nating Lahat Ito

Oscar De La Hoya - Run To Me

Who would win now?

Floor seats were going for $21000 per seat the last time i checked. I was only trying to get $150 tickets….

I remember there was a time there was no internet, cellular phones, bluetooth, blackberries, iphones….. I couldnt imagine how difficult it would now to meet people, finding out what is out there, event to go to….. Here I go out to meet people. Create a network that can help me now or in the future because down the line you may never know if you run into that same person again. I have gone to several workshops/industry events just to meet the right people to help me in the right direction. I would search the internet to research upon peoples names and look which events they might be at. I would go up to them and introduce myself and tell him/her who i am and give a little schpiel what i’m doing here. Again, growing up in North America, I consider myself very privledged. The people i’ve met and the network I am creating can lead to bigger and brighter opportunities here in the Philppines (if i follow through). I do not see why the ‘average’ filipino cannot do the same if they do a little research of who to meet and do what you want to do. Asia is a place where you can make anything happen. It is much easier to start the things you want to do simply by networking and finding what you want to do. However you do need lots of time to create that network.

The sun came out after 3 days of hiding. The torrential downpours and the gusting winds did not stop me to try to enjoy what was there and try to enjoy what culture I was able to salvage amidst the constant soaking. The last night I was able to enjoy a wonderful dinner with a friend of whom i’ve known since univeristy…..We were able to share a university experience. We were able to share time in the dj booth. We were able to share a drink or two in university. This time we were able to share a meal of beef noodle soup and a can of beer on the side of street from a street vendor. As simple as this sounds,  eating outdoors on the side of the street is the way of life in taiwan and in many asian countries. The meal itself was hearty, filling and most importantly cheep. The meal was no more than 80NT or $3CAN…. As Chad and I sat down on the side of the street reminiscing what university was like we couldnt help to notice the actual circumstances we were actually in. We were counting the days when we actually met in university, starting a hip hop culture club in university and 10 years later we were sitting on a side street in taiwan, eating beef noodles and sipping on a can of taiwanese beer. Who would have thought?.. it still trips me out. Ask me that 10 years ago if i would have been doing that…. my first reaction would be… “who’s taiwan???” …

the whole weekend we were able to talk about how different western and eastern life is. We were able to witness and live the difference between 1st world living and 3rd world living. But there is one thing that always stands out of my mind when I talk to westernized people living in 3rd world countries. the idea of “living to work”. There are opportunities North America and europe. there are opportunities in Asia. However, the opportunities in Asia are easier to come by and easier to achieve.

My arrival in taiwan was not a pleasant one. On top of everything else, the typhoon called “sinlaku” had to make an s-curve u turn just to come back to hit taiwan. A quick geography lesson. Taiwan is north of the Philippines. Its about a 2hr flight from Manila to Taipei (Taiwan’s capital city). On friday the typhoon, just started to graze the northern part of the Philippines and just south of taiwan’s most southern tip. My naiveness (is that a word) thought typhoons move in straight lines. duhhhhhhhh…. Typhoons move whereever they feel like it, cuz they don’t have feelings!!!…… You would think it would have move right along its point A to B course…. riiiight???…… wrong!!!.. it made an s-curve u-turn and decided to come back and it the northern part of taiwan (where I’m at…)… so for 3 days i’ve basically been soaked, drenched, wet trying to get around the city. Fountains are falling down staircases, water comes from left, right, overhead and beneathe. ….. This typhoon drenched peoples mood. Only a few people came to enjoy the wonderful music i was prepared to play….

Day 1 - typhoon

the whole day we’re stranded in a studio apartment. Not wanting to go anywhere because of the torrential downpours. We had to go to the venue and do a sound check…  So we took a $20 cab ride…. (which is waayyy to much in asia) to the venue because our first initial thought the subway system was closed down…..
The venue itself had a really nice set up. Its the only rock/indie venue in taipei. To get to the venue itself, you had to go down a flight of a curving staircase. This staircase was covered up in graffitti which some foreigners did for free. on the right hand side are a bunch of graffitti tags leading to the washroom. In front of you is a green sign that says “Music saves your soul” in helvetica lettering. Underneathe with white lettering describing what the venue is about. As you walk to your left, there is art from local artist. Making way through the corridor there are other shops leading to the Wall. There is a tattoo parlour, clothing stores, coffee shops, design toy shops and anything that is not mainstream is there. One side shops the otherside chairs to relax to drink beer, sip coffee, or go online to check the latest weather listings! this place was wi-fied…… and at the end of the corridor the actual entrance to the wall….
This is a story I would like to share for everybody. When Im playing my set please do not bother, argue, take requests, or complain to me. There was this one white lady (early 30s) who decided that she did not like the music I was playing. Why? “because I can hear this music every other night..”, …. but just dont complain and try to start an argument with me while i’m working….. I wanted to hit this drunk bitch…… she was was damn ass annoying……… As i’m playing my set she would try to come inside the dj booth….. so i had to escort her out…….. I saw her stumble and fall a couple of times during the night and she did eventually apologize to me for being rude and obnoxious…….

Day 2 - typhoon

We got home around 5am after having morning mcdonald munchies (cuz thats the only thing that was oopen because of the typhoon) we then slept till dinner time.

This weekend in taipei marks the end of the moon festival…. its similar to the thanksgiving back home. Instead of having a turkey feast… people here have BBQs!!!…  If there is a typhoon… people still bbq. I smelled bbqs going on inside buildings i’ve seen them bbq in the rain. BBQ is good…. so we decide to have BBQ (like all u can eat korean bbq in toronto) a bunch of us. The whole dj crew and friends…. So we got there around 7 waited an hour for our table.. and left about 11…. We had no other place to go, it was still raining…. I haven’t ate like for a while… All u can eat isnt really popular in the philippines….

Day 3 - typhoon

the rain has still not let up……… i hope i have a flight tomorrow….

If you don’t know by now, i am in taipei. I had quite a day, I had to pay for overstaying the amount of days in the Philippines will let me. I’ve overstayed the Philippines for about a month. I didnt know you had to pay for overstaying my visit. I had to pay close to $100CDN. and that was the discount.

also i had to buy another computer recharger because…??? i forgot it in my suitcase in Manila….. why do i need a battery charger?… if you dont remember, I’m dj’ing a party here in Taiwan, all my music is on this computer….. you figure it out…

this is not a very detailed description, cuz i just work up. .lol!

im an idiot….