Well, our visas just arrived the other day so I guess I can talk about this now that it looks like it's going to happen: Neva and I are going to Scotland in about a week! :) I'm pretty excited, but trying not to be because I'm afraid I'll jinx it or my karma will go bad. But I've never been to Europe, and haven't been out of the country in a good long while. '01 or '02. We will be staying in Edinburgh for about 3 weeks, then have a short stay (right now it's only 12 hours, but we're trying to figure out how to make it overnight) in Amsterdam. The whole thing, besides a family vacation for Neva, is for us to attend the Edinburgh International Arts Festival, one of the biggest, if not the, festivals of its kind in Europe. During the month of August, the entire city goes nuts because their film, music, and book festivals all take place! There's also festivals for theater, dance, and children's programming. Since Neva's stepdad is from there, they have a flat, and that's where we'll all be staying. So we're covered for lodging. We'll mostly be walking around to save on transpo fees, because EVERYTHING is expensive there. As in, we're planning to eat sandwiches and baon as much as possible because a Happy Meal goes for about 3-5 pounds, and I won't feel too good knowing that little burger is 300-500 pesos! Also, we need to save what little money we have for the events we're going to attend. Sadly, few of the events we want to go to are free. Even with the film festival, which I am dead excited about, we have to be really selective about what we're going to watch, considering carefully what's likely to come out in the Philippines, what we'll get to see on DVD, what will likely come out on pirated, etc. :) The average ticket price for a movie is 8 pounds! 800 pesos!

So please give us your travel tips! We're already stocking up on batteries, film, and medicine just in case. Anybody reading this that's been to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Amsterdam, please recommend things to do and places to see! I know very little about these places besides the Loch Ness monster & Trainspotting (and legal weed and the red light district in Amsterdam's case) so any info would be appreciated.

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Out of the blue, Neva asked if she could read The Invisibles. This was Sunday. I was worried about it, saying there's 7 collections, will you be able to read them all before we leave? Baka mabitin ka. She's on the 7th already. Meanwhile, I've been trying to read Bone quickly but carefully, paying special attention to the detail of art and story. I started from the beginning, even if I've read Vols. 1-8, because here it all is, finally; how could I resist? It's just an utter joy to fall in love with all the characters again. When I'm at Neva's, though, I'm trying to read her copy of Craig Thompson's Carnet de Voyage, which is terrific and inspiring, especially with our upcoming trip. I really wish I could draw worth a damn, because I might've tried making something like it. It's a travel diary that he kept while touring Morocco and other countries, mainly as a tour to support Blankets, but partly to research his next graphic novel, Habibi.

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New Mirrormask pics!

Shit this movie's gonna be so great! Tentative plans are a short theatrical run in January before they go to video.

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I'm listening to !!!'s Louden Up Now while writing this, and while "Hello? Is This Thing On?" was playing I slowly got up and started dancing. That's my exercise for the day. Download it, it's good for your health.