Searching the City for the Needed Books

It's not easy when school asks a lot from you. Be it for homeworks, papers, exams or stuff like that. You've got a lot of requirements to fulfill in order for you to get good grades or at the very least, pass the subject... or at least make an effort to do so. Once you have schoolworks, you've gotta do it eventually... even if the deadline's far off.

Now, in my case, I'm a college student majoring in literature, meaning I deal with books, writing and more than just that, theories and stuff pertaining to history, philosophy and issues in our world today. In relation to this, as per requirements, I've been going all over the city last weekend to find certain books that I need for schoolwork; 1) graphic novels/comics (locally made ones) for my thesis and 2) another novel for a paper in one of my subjects. I know that it's not gonna be an easy task since it's finding a few needles in a haystack known as Metro Manila. (speaking of which, I think I should change my blog title. Maybe on my blog anniversary... Weird how I'm not good with titles and I'm majoring what I'm in. OK, I'm already going off topic.)

So let the search.... begin!

It began last Friday with my first stop being Araneta Center in Cubao. The place was suggested to me by my dad because the National Bookstore branch there was big. Since Cubao's a commercialized area, seemed like a good place to start. Before going there, I went to school at first but the teachers I had to meet weren't there so I left immediately. I headed first to the National Bookstore branch along Quezon ave, since it's along the way. Didn't get anything good there, though I've seen stuff I remembered from the Manila International Book Fair (wow, it's been over a month already). From there, I went to Cubao. I spent a while at the NBS brach there, next to Gateway. Again, nothing good. Although, there was one comic that I've been seeing a lot and checked it out but I decided not to buy it yet... until I bought in on Sunday in TriNoma. There were other comics I could've used, but sadly, the other volumes weren't available. After that, I got lost in Araneta and checked out some Christmas decors near Farmer's Market. I went to SM and TriNoma after but didn't find what I needed. All in all, the Cubao trip ended up with getting nothing. :(

Christmas decors in Araneta

Next day, Saturday, I stayed within Manila. Saturday's a class day for me, but it's only one subject and it's an hour long. Before getting to the books, I searched some places where to get books and since Recto is a place to go, I decided to go there first. After class, I changed clothes and headed to Quiapo. Man, Recto sure did have a lot of books. I haven't seen that many in one place since the MIBF. In the end, despite the number of books, I didn't get a thing. After walking around Recto, I headed to the City Hall since I read there was a book shop in the underpass that sold some books (Books from Underground. Check their page). Since it seemed promising, there I went. Sure enough, it has some things that I was looking for and it was there where I finally got the novel for my paper. With that done, only the comics were left. My next destination for the day was Robinsons Manila. Didn't see much there really... :/ All I did was have dinner, checked their NBS branch, wandered around and that's it. Before going home I headed to SM Manila... Again, nothing, though it had more variety than the other malls I went to so far. At least I was able to get something at the end of the day

Fountain at Robinsons Manila

Sunday was probably (if not definitely) the most promising day. This time, I headed to Greenhills, SM Megamall and Robinsons Galleria. Good thing this time I only had to look for the comics since the other's done. Since there were comic book stores in all three locations, I'm sure I'd get something out of it. I thought that if things went well, I'd get at least 3 novels when I finished searching. First, I went to Greenhills and the first place I went was Fully Booked. The place looked amazing and in addition, there was a Comic Odyssey branch there, which sells comics, both local and international. After being there for a bit, I headed for the main mall. Finally found a good comic that I could use at the NBS branch there. By the way, it was the last one and it was by Francisco Coching, a national artist whom I recently just learned about... (Maybe I should familiarize myself with these people more...). Before leaving Greenhills, I made one last stop at Fully Booked/Comic Odyssey before heading to my next stop which was SM Megamall. Nothing too special there but the Filbars branch had some locally made comics that I've seen back at, again, the MIBF (It's like it's coming back to haunt me... o_o). I just went around SM and headed to Robinsons Galleria since there's another Comic Odyssey there. The one at Galleria is bigger so chances are, I'll definitely get something, which I did. Even Galleria had some titles I saw from the Bookfair and since I bought the first two volumes of a title back then and the last ones were already at the store, I may as well. With that, it makes it two titles down. After that, I went back to Megamall and just went around, but I did check the bookstores before heading back to TriNoma. Just saying, there were cosplayers at Megamall since there was an event (didn't attend, though I knew about it...). I decided to buy the first part of another graphic novel in TriNoma. Sunday ended good.

Some pics from Sunday.

At Greenhills.

Greenhills, San Juan.

At Robinsons Galleria. Comic Odyssey is right there next to Trust Trade.

Po from Kung Fu Panda at SM Megamall. This wasn't the cosplay event I was referring to though...

So, all in all, I found the novel I needed near Manila City Hall. As for the comics, I found one at Greenhills, more volumes at Galleria and bought the last at TriNoma (though it's just part 1, part 2 is always available and I've seen it and I can buy it anytime, hehehe...). That makes it three. Good thing the teachers were fine with them. I'm steps closer to getting the goal. :)

But once all my school stuff's done, not sure what will happen since, chances are, I'll not be needing the books anymore. Maybe I could keep them for myself as good entertainment. Or maybe I could give them away. No good wasting books, right? :)

School ain't easy... but I sure hope I can pass... ^_^

With that, I'm done. Thanks for checking! :)

Exploring SM Mall of Asia

Last April 25th, in addition to attending the Ozine Fest, I went around SM Mall of Asia (SM MOA) and took some pictures all over the place.

Ozine Fest 2014 and Going Around Mall of Asia

Last April 25, 2014, I headed down to SM Mall of Asia to go around and also to go to day 1 of a cosplay event, Ozine Fest 2014. I arrived there about 11 AM or so, somewhere around that time. Hot day, really and when I came to SMX MOA, the event hasn't started. I won't go to all the details but while waiting, I went around the place and had lunch somewhere, checked different places and checked the situation in SMX Convention center. Originally at first, I wasn't going to buy a ticket for the event but I ended up buying it (at 150 pesos) and I guess I can say, it was worth it, especially hanging out with the cosplayers :). Next time though I gotta be more careful when I go to events like this, especially Otaku/Hobbyist events because there are things there that make me feel uncomfortable (I won't tell what they are, but for sure, it's not the cosplayers). I don't go to MOA since it's far from our place (add to the fact that there are other malls more interesting than MOA) and in fact, last time I was there before Ozine fest was for a Cosplay event last year. Overall, enjoyable day but wow, I ended up tiring myself so much that my feet really hurt. -_-

Be sharing some scenes here:

En route to MOA

Lining up

I haven't been with cosplayers since last January. Nice to be with them again.

Shrine of Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life, next to SMX Convention Center

Photo-ops outside the hall

SM Mall of Asia Arena

Shirts and pins

Posters

Chibis

Going down

Seashell lane, SM MOA

Edit: I'd just like to add this. I have read in other blogs, heard in some comments and sites that many people complained about this convention. I only went to day 1 and even then, I had my share of negatives and all, like most, if not all the attendees (such as the entry time). In the end, really, it was enjoyable IMO, despite the problems (and other things at the mismong con). What matters most, more than the negatives is that we enjoyed ourselves and had a good time. If I were someone who focused on the negatives, I'd probably refrain myself from attending another convention or something for a while. Remember, it's always good to count your blessings and learn from mistakes. :) (although that is something I've gotta work on myself... ^_^,)

Another edit (added 6/10/14): After some things, because of personal reasons I decided not to attend any Ozine events anymore. It's not because of disorganization or the guards or mismanagement (I've been to events, not just cons, that had those, with bigger attendances), but rather other reasons why I'm not attending, lest I may run into those reasons. That said, it however does not mean I'm not attending any cons anymore and I will still be attending others, such as Toycon, BOA or Cosplay Mania or other cons. Also, it doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy these events and I had fun in them, not to mention that 3 out of the 7 cosplay events I attended (so far as of this edit) were Ozine events (namely Ozine Fest: AFS last December, Otaku Expo last January and this one).

Easter at Makati

Last Black Saturday, me, my mom and brother spent an overnight in Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati and we went all over the place in Glorietta and Greenbelt as well. In addition, I attended the Easter Vigil in Greenbelt Chapel. I won't be going into too much details over what happened but I'll just post some pictures from back then.

@ Greenbelt

Greenbelt chapel

At the lobby. When we came, the lobby had the smell of perfume all over it.

Swimming pool, Dusit Thani. Quite small actually, but nice nonetheless.

Easter Vigil at the Greenbelt Chapel

Mater Alegria, Greenbelt Chapel

Christ is Risen!

EDSA, taken from our room on Easter Sunday morning. If only it were like this more often...

Breakfast buffet at Dusit Thani. The food was awesome

Easter bunny

Easter bunnies. So cute... :P

Glorietta, Easter Sunday morning

Bought milk tea @ Happy Lemon Glorietta

Dusit Thani Manila

EDSA, later in the morning

Traffic builds up

Last picture before we left.