Aha! I smell a reboot. Maybe in 2011.

BACK, BUT ONLY FOR THIS POST

...because I still live on Multiply. But please, read on...

Okay, so if you've been following Philippine current events, we're chest-deep in another stupid government scandal. And while I may act ambivalent about the whole bit, I am generally concerned about where this country is heading. The government says that our economy is the best it's been in 31 years. But it's not good enough. People are STILL starving and well, in terms of infrastructure, we still pay the highest price for the lowest quality. This is progress you say?

So the children of People Power 1 are now grown up. We have the income, the numbers and, more importantly because of the Interwebs, the power to influence. Friend Lawin has an interesting germ of an idea of bringing about People Power 2.0. Read up, and if you're interested, spread the word and let's see where we can take this.

---

*Please feel free to repost this on your blog. - Jason

Income tax, in an ideal world, is how a government generates money in order to fund its programs and functions, pay government workers' salaries, and make sure that everything works properly for the benefit of the citizenry. A cool idea, taxes. It's democracy in action. It's people pooling resources to make government (and sanity and stability) possible.

But all you have to do is check out our unemployment rates, our declining standards of education, the rise in homelessness, and the proliferation of potholes and you see that conditions are far from ideal. After years and years of debt servicing and the Armed Forces being top priorities when it comes to budget allocation, we're still bilions of dollars in debt. And we can still only sustain less than ten minutes of full-scale conventional warfare before wiping out our ammo reserves. It's almost too sad.

And it's not even that I don't want to pay my taxes. I know it's needed. I just want the money to be put to better use. I want to feel that it makes a difference in a way that's valuable to ME and not just to some faceless board or think tank.

So WHAT IF we could choose exactly where our income tax goes to? When our returns are filed, we fill out little boxes stating the percentages or departments or issues that our taxes will support. For example, if I had my way, I'd like MY taxes to go to education, the arts, and public works. It's a more direct and participative way of doing taxes. It makes taxes feel relevant and meaningful again. Plus government bodies and departments will be compelled to talk more about their programs and why you should put your tax money in their program instead of others. Sure, I know there's bare minimums that should be maintained ond that you can't have departments without money at all, but I figure that's what the OTHER taxes can fund. INCOME tax, well, I think that's something us income earners deserve to have more say about. Heck, with this kind of system in place, the citizenry can actually direct policy and government action with more force and finality than some convention, lobby, or rally. Make the final destination of income tax controllable by the tax payer and you'll have real honest-to-goodness People Power that even EDSA I would have trouble matching.

I'm no economist or governance specialist. But I know that what I've outlined above makes sense. It makes us all more participative. It makes government more accountable. And it makes taxes not so painful.

I'm looking for people who can help turn this idea into a proposal of some sort. With all the professional bells and whistles. Something we can send to governement as a real and solid proposition. If this is interesting to you, if this is something you'd like to see happen, and if you're interested in more intelligent and more constructive mass action, let's get together. Let's meet. Let's talk. And then let's change the world.

...MOVING

Shifting over to my multiply site for the time being. Blogger's fun, but really - Multiply can do so much more.

YOWZA.

I hadn't counted on this:


Neil linked my Multiply mirror of The Proposal entry! See it here.

This is beyond awesome. And, as you may see, it's generated a quite a sizeable comment thread. Woweezowee! Thanks, everyone!

Oh, Russ Molina of DDB Philippines FILMED the entire proposal bit.



Neil also said quite a bit about the proposal during the Fully Booked event the day after. Thanks to Charles Tan for the following transcript:

"The great thing about coming to the Philippines is that people always ask what was the strangest thing that has happened to me in the Philippines. Today when they were asking me upstairs as I was being interviewed was yesterday during the book signing that I did in Subic, somebody named Jason with him through my FAQ line on my website and said I want to propose marriage to my girlfriend, would you mind writing Maui would you marry Jason in my book? Of course I did it. I wrote Maui would you marry Jason and--I did a Sandman drawing first and handed it to her and she looked very baffled at first, possibly I was the one proposing. And then she looked at the word Jason attached to it and by that point she had Jason down on his knees pulling out a ring. That was yesterday's strangest thing."

That bit was also captured on video:



And more pictures are popping up:

Stuff from purplycookie.

Pics from Ayn.

I guess more will pop up soon.

*Yes Maui, I'm so sorry for forgetting to have Neil sign the copy of Eternals. I promise I won't forget next time I propose to you. ;cP

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, PART 2

Title Option 1: How I totally stole the show from Neil Gaiman
Title Option 2: How Neil Gaiman proposed to my girfriend

Oh dear. Where do I begin? The timeline here will be slightly disjointed, so please do bear with me if I hop back and forth in my storytelling. It's been a thoroughly exhausting week and I still haven't recovered from all this pleasant madness.

2007 Philippine Ad Congress, Day 02 - Neil's opening remarks:

I can vaguely recall Neil saying something about creativity, storytelling, and always asking, "What If?" because it's from this "What If?" that we generate ideas and come up with stories. This was directly related to much writing, including his most current masterpiece-in-the-making, The Graveyard Book. In it, he answered the question, "What if a real baby could be raised in a graveyard...by dead people?"

*He read the first chapter of the book at the signing event - it's rather good.

So I think it's apt that I label what I did as my "What If?” moment. Because, to propose to my lovely girlfriend Maui, I asked the following:

"What if I could get Neil Gaiman, our most fave author and fantasy writer, to help propose to her?"

*I was under a lot of pressure from friends to find a "creative" way of proposing. So guys – was this creative enough for you? ;c)

Three Weeks Ago:

I already knew for some time that Neil was going to be at the Ad Congress to have a couple of talks and a signing. So one late night, I went to the "Ask Neil" portion of his blog and wrote a rather long e-mail about how I planned to propose, and if he could find some time in his busy sched to play a role. I did this well knowing that the e-mail would probably discarded along with the thousands of messages he gets every day.

But two days later, a reply from his assistant:

Hi Jason,

I am sure we can help with this, give me a bit to make sure of his schedule...

And a day later, while having lunch with Maui, I got a call from Jaime Daez, owner of local book superstore Fully Booked, telling me that Neil had in fact, agreed, and would be very happy to help me out.

I rushed over to Fully Booked to talk to Jaime (he wanted to see my face so he could signal Neil during the event) and ended up buying a copy of Absolute Sandman Vol. 02 (which was going to be the book).

Expensive, but well worth it.

What followed was about 2 weeks' worth of planning and headaches to make sure everything was perfect.

2007 Philippine Ad Congress, Day 02 - In a Hallway for "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY":

After Neil's talk, Maui rushed off to the loo. So I attempted to ambush Neil and introduce myself as "that insane guy you're helping to propose to his girlfriend."

But Maui quickly exited the bathrooms and rushed towards me, frozen in disbelief that Neil was actually there.

So I instead pushed her towards Neil and took a snap:

Happy Neil Moment #1. If only she knew...

Still not content with my planning (which was reaching new heights of being Obsessive-Compulsive), I approached Lucre Villaluna of the Ad Congress Neil Gaiman event to put in yet ANOTHER failsafe measure. I told her my story, and wrote a short note to Neil reminding him of what was going to go down on Saturday. I know, I know - a bit much, but I WAS in an O-C mood.

And during dinner the next night, I received an SMS from her. What follows is our SMS exchange:

Lucre: Where r u?

Me: What's up? Good news, I hope.

Lucre: Yes, bt pls kip it confidential. Can u call me ASAP?

I rushed out of the dining hall to call her.

Lucre: Hi! Someone wants to speak with you.

SFX: Shuffling, muffled voices, and then...

Neil: Hello, Jason. So we're going to have you married on Saturday, then?

Me: ...

We talked about how it would go down, and agreed on certain visual cues to make things go a smoothly as possible.

Neil: Let's make some magic happen on Saturday.

Me: ...

Saturday, 6:30am, El Centro, Subic:

Groggy from a night of partying, we joined the line at an ungodly hour. Some guy had lined up at 12:30am, which was kind of freaky in a stalker-ish way, but we were all geeks anyway so it was all good. Ha!

Ground Zero.

For a last bit of planning, Lucre pulled me out of the line and shuttled me inside the venue to go over the entire routine. Everyone in the organizing committee was now in on it: ushers, doormen, bouncers and photographers. The operation would be simple: during the signing, they would stop everybody behind us from going up on stage to let the entire thing play out.

So at about 9:00am, a haggard and jet-lagged Neil took to the stage to read the first chapter of The Graveyard Book and answer some questions. Then he would sign books for the first 100 people in line (Maui and I were #19 and #20).

Here's the book.

*The rest of the story will be told mostly in pictures and captions. At this point, my mind was blank and I really, really can't recall what happened.

Yes, Maui. Neil rocks. And he will rock further...

...because in addition to this drawing...

...he wrote this.

...and Maui actually failed to notice Neil's dedication because she was so starstruck. It took him about three times to actually get her to read the darn thing.

Maui (squealing, closing the book): Thanks!!!

Neil: Aren't you going to read what I wrote? You have to read it...

Maui (opening the book, shrugging, closing it again): Thanks!!!

Me: You have to read the dedication...

And she bent over to give Neil a kiss, STILL not noticing what was going on.

Neil: You really have to read this...

When she did (FINALLY!)...

Maui: OH MY GOD!!! (20x)

I took the ring out of my left pocket. Because of portability issues, I left the ring case back in the hotel, instead substituting a velvet pouch I'd hastily constructed before leaving for Subic.

And then I knelt.

I really hadn't planned on kneeling. I thought it was an act that was too typical of a proposal and should be left out. But strangely, I found myself down on one knee, staring up at my now-tearful girlfriend and repeating, "Willyouwillyouwillyouwillyou?" over and over.


...and she said, "Yes."

My guess is that the photographer was getting emotional as well.

This silly little act drew gasps, awwwsss and claps from the crowd. Friends cheered, strangers cried and my knees...were shaking worse than a 5.7 earthquake.

Maui hugged me, her back towards Neil. I reached out to shake his hand, whispering, "Thank you!" over and over. The Author. Neil. Gaiman. just. helped. me. propose. to. my. girlfriend.

And in the midst of all this, we managed to give Neil a copy of Maui's great grandad's book on folk tales (he was the writer of Lola Basyang, a popular children's folktale series).

Anyway, back to the pictures:

Maui talking to her mum: Were you in on it?!!

Which is the ring of power now?

...and to top it off, that night at the Araw (advertising) Awards, we each won a bronze! Me for interactive, and Maui for outdoor.

Two bronzes and a diamond. Not a bad haul, eh?

All this excitement and stress in just one day. Whew!

---

So there it is. A crazy, happy and exhausting weekend for us. More pictures are coming in, even a video! We'll post 'em soon.

Until then, there's a week's worth of backlog work to be dealt with.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, PART 1


To Neil Gaiman, the Dream King, master writer and all-around great guy: You have helped make the 2007 Philippine Advertising Congress a very, very memorable one for Maui and I. This was my "What If?" moment, and you helped me pull it off.

To Jaime Daez, Lorraine, Lucre + the Advertising Congress Neil Gaiman Committee: You ALL made this possible, and I cannot thank all of you enough.

Stories, pictures, and a whole lot of everything to follow. It's been a mad, mad week and I need some serious rest.

*To those who want to see a preview of what transpired last weekend, head on over to Maui's blog to see a compressed journal of what happened.

AD CONG NA NAMAN?!!

Okay, mental note...must must MUST remember to update blog more often.

ANYway, so it's Ad Congress time again. Every two years, the Philippine advertising industry gets together to give each other a good pat on the back for some good work done.

And I just realized...it's my FIFTH Ad Congress. Wow. Seven years in the industry, a few awards here and there and here we are again. Good news, too, because this time around, I've been made an official delegate by my agency.

Rumours of a big night for Ogilvy are in the air, but I'll reserve any sort of celebration until the actual awards night this coming Saturday.

Oh, and Neil Gaiman will be there as well. Hurray!

So it's off to Subic for a *hopefully* memorable couple of days. Should be loads fun!