Holy Week >

What is holy week to you?

It is a common mistake to think that Jesus once again died and we have to be all "holy" for a week but isn't it supposed to be a holy life instead of just a week?

Jesus had already died 2000 yrs ago and paid the price for our past, present, and future sins. Once we invite Him into our lives, our past is gone and forgotten. Isn't that nice? All the things we've done in our lives over the years, the things we regret, the things we hope to forget, all fade away under God's grace and forgiveness. Every sin is out of sight for God. All He sees is a pure you. A pure child of His, washed and cleansed by the blood of His son. We are as white as snow. Clear as glass. That is God's forgiveness for you. Isn't it great?

Holy week is a reminder. A Time to reflect and think about the sacrifice God made to be close to you... gave His one and only son. Jesus became sin for us so that we may become whole. Jesus put on SIN itself just for His brothers and sisters (that's us) can experience the goodness and the grace of His Father. It is also a time to look into yourself and ask yourself how you can take an extra step to make a difference in your life and how to impact others as God had done for yours. How can you change yourself and become a better child of His not to win His heart but to be a light to all the people around you. Remember, as Jesus paid for your sins, there is nothing you can do to win God's favor anymore. He loves you PERIOD. That's all there is to it. Now, you have yourself. An open instrument of change where you can make a difference. Be a light to others. It is not asking for you to go out to the streets and preach but it starts with a simple act of kindness that will show others that you have Jesus inside you. It is the small things that make people see His face as you shine for His glory. 

God already DID it and Jesus said, "it is finished." There is nothing left for us to do to "be in God's good graces" but to simply accept the gift of His son, the gift of salvation.

You have been bought because you are important. God loves you and cares about your life wherever you are in. 

Remember these thoughts during the holy week and thank God. Pray for forgiveness and invite Him to be the Lord of your life. You shall see and experience a life of surprises and rest once you do. 

Cy

Joke for the day :)

"Dad, can you write in the dark? "
"I think so. What is it you want me to write? "
"Your name on this report card. "

Pump Up Your Facebook

Like most users on Facebook, when we say Facebook applications, it can be received with both irritation or welcome. Irritation because a lot will immediately think of all those FB game updates when they hear FB apps. But then again, there are a ton of FB apps that still fall in that "welcome" reaction and that's what I'd like to help you guys out with. 

You can pump up your FB page or fanpage if you have one by utilizing these apps to pump up your page and set yourself apart. 

I'm no expert here as I'm also just trying my best to configure my page the way I want or need to perform. But FB apps will and can make FB more than just a page to find or connect with friends.

Like for example, you can use applications for RSS feeds that can bring in your blog into a section in your FB page by improving the visitor experience on your page. There's also an app that can integrate your twitter feed into your page. There are literally tons and tons of apps. There are apps that can feed your flickr photos direct onto your page. If you're on a Mac, iPhoto can directly upload to FB! So there are a million ways to beef up your page. 

Check out my page at http:www.facebook.com/silverfilterofficial and try to see what I did. 

For my fanpage, I utilized the tabs for my own youtube channel, my blog via RSS, and my music page in Reverbnation that's basically what I'm about. My fanpage is of course about the music since of course, I'm a musician and the My Band tab contains everything a fan might want to check out about me primarily. The visitors can then peruse the entire content of the page via the other tabs.

For my personal FB page, I still have my band but it's in the main page in a box on the lower left of it. I also have a box where people can join my mailing list. In the notes section, my RSS feeds into it bringing my blog to my visitors instead of them needing to visit mine.

So there you go. A lot of possibilities and directions your page can go to and become. It's really up to you and your personality to configure which applications represent you. 

Hope that helps!

To get you guys started, you can visit http://www.involver.com so that you can choose 2 free applications that they have to install on your FB page!

Enjoy!

Cy

Joke for the day :)

A young man comes home and says "Dad, just got my driver's license and
would like to use the family car. "
Father replies, :"O. K., son. But, first, you have to get good grades
in school, keep your room clean, make the yard is neat, and cut your
hair. Come back in a few months and then we'll see. "
Well, several months pass and the young man comes into the house with
his report card in his hand. "Dad, I got great marks on my report card.
I've been keeping my room as neat as a pin, and the yard is always
ship-shape. How about letting me use the car? "
Father replies, "That's all true, but son you didn't cut your hair. "
Son says, "But, dad, Jesus had long hair. "
Father replies,
"Yes, son, you're perfectly right. And he walked everywhere he went. "

Google Is Your Friend

>>>

I still somehow grew up partly in between the wireless age and the wired, books vs internet and whatnot. In this day and age, everything's there to be found. It's not anymore about information seeming like treasures that needed to be sought out. Information today is as available as air. It can sometimes be said, "if you can't find it, you're lazy." Sometimes, it holds true.

Let's just face it, everything's online to be found. EVERYTHING. And for anything we need to find out, all we need is Google. No, I'm not promoting the company but laying down the hard facts and hoping to share something in the process. 

People still like to ask... myself included but as I have learned to step out, I do hope you could too. We just need to type in our search query and voila! We are presented with relevant pages to seek our potential answer. Sometimes, pages presented aren't as relevant? Then change your search query. That's all there is to it. You can also use related words that can help lead you to pages relating to that which you're looking for. 

The nice thing about "googling" is that we're not only going to get the exact, specific answer that we were hoping for, but we will also get related pages that will help us open our minds a bit more with what's out there. Often times, you'll discover pages with answers for questions you didn't even think of but was still VERY relevant to your initial query. This is where the fun begins. 

So next time you decide to just ask someone and wait for an answer, try Google. You'll be amazed at what you'll find. From there you'll enter into an endless information stream that can be good or bad (overload) depending on how much you dig. The thrill is the discovery. 

Enjoy!

Cy

Saturday Metro Tour

It was an interesting Saturday.

Drove Bernice to her client all the way to the QC border Manila area. Man, it's far... Coming from the south, it always seems like going to the province! It was a nice experience for me though as a driver. New places to get familiar with.

After that we  headed to Ortigas. Another Stop. Dropped by PJC Music, which is where I bought my strat before. If you're a musician looking to order stuff not available here, you can order through PJ. It's along Julia Vargas at the commercial center with home depot. It's right in front of BigBert's Auto Detailing. 

Then we headed to Shangri La mall. We were thinking of going to Greenhills but to save us money from enjoying Greenhills bargains, we decided to go to the mall instead. We had dinner and tried out Secret Recipe. It's a nice place and the food's GREAT! Berns enjoyed my choice and we ended up finding a new favorite resto to put on the list. Their cheesecakes and cakes rock! :) What was funny was exactly a year ago, we were in Podium and same experience during Earth Hour. The mall was dimmed and so it was an entirely different malling experience! We went around the mall after eating and planned to see a movie but since we enjoyed going around, we didn't make the screening. We decided to head back south.

Driving along C5, I thought that we could make the 11:30 screening at Greenbelt and off the GB we went! hehe We saw The Book of Eli. Berns doesn't like those types of movies but we didn't make it to get nice seats at the 11:15 screening of I Love You Philip Morris and so we had no choice. 

It was quite a day going around from QC to Ortigas to Makati. It was TIRING driving on a Saturday with the traffic but it was something new coz we're usually confined in the South areas. On top of all that, I forgot my phone at home so I was out of touch. It was a refreshing experience not having your mobile around and being in not-often-visited places :)

Cy

Joke for the day:)

A rather attractive woman goes up to the bar in a quiet rural pub. She
gestures alluringly to the barman who comes over immediately. When he
arrives, she seductively signals that he should bring his face close
to hers. When he does so, she begins to gently caress his beard which
is full and bushy. Are you the landlord? " she asks, softly stroking
his face with both hands. "Actually, no " he replies. "Can you get him
for me - I need to speak to him? " she asks, running her hands up
beyond his beard and into his hair. "I'm afraid I can't " breathes the
barman - clearly aroused. "Is there anything I can do? " "Yes there
is. I need you to give him a message " she continues huskily, popping
a couple of fingers into his mouth and allowing him to suck them
gently. "Tell him that there is no toilet paper in the ladies room. "

Great. Just Great!

I logged on to blog about the errors I make when blogging thru my
iPod. Lo and behold, I accidentally submitted a blank entry! So that's
one for today.

But reading back on my previous entries Where i used my screen to
type, I must say I was unsuccessful. Some entries sounded like I was
some lost Asian who missed words or had wrong spellings. Blame it on
the screen keyboard and the autofill or predictive spelling of the iPod.

So I'm sorry for those. I really should triple check every entry!

Cy

www.silverfilter.com
myspace.com/silverfilter
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twitter.com/silverfilter
facebook.com/silverfilter

Matter of Perspective

I always see the glass half full.

Not only does positive thinking change you for the better but your declarations of things always for the better really does result in something positive for your life. It is said that life and death lie in the power of the tongue and all it takes is the tongue. All it takes is what you say and that's where your life will lead. Isn't it interesting to know that as it is written, "out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks?" It then follows that what you know speak will dictate the direction of your future. I know it sounds like I'm going around in circles. It's just my way of stressing the point and building up the idea.

So what's in your heart? Guard the ideas that you 'water' in your heart and let grow. Make sure that those are positive things and you don't build up on negative thoughts and fear. Remember, God sent His son for our salvation and He wins in the end. So there's no room to be negative. There's no room to fear. God is faithful to His promises and if you take His promises to heart, then you can rest assured that you will continue to see good things and those things you speak manifests your faith and will bring those things to pass in God's perfect time :)

Be a light to those looking for the way in the darkness of negativity :)

Cy

More of God...

I arrived late last for church last night since I was sorting out stuff at home for donation to operation blessing, which they'll be picking up today. 

I felt bad coming in late and I somehow felt that I couldn't get something anymore since I wasn't there during the start... That's where I forgot... I should've known God always had something.

It was praise and worship night and the 2nd to the last song, as much as I've been singing it every Wednesday and Sunday, ministered to me more that night. 

I forgot most of the lyrics but a few lines went (not sure) "take me deeper than I've been before, take me closer God I long for more, Take me higher than I've been before. Jesus I want more. Jesus I want more.

We go thru life daily and we don't often pause to realize that God is always there to pour out more of Him to us. I've always been faithful and all but I sometimes miss the part where we can ask for more. All we have to do is ask and cry out to Him. It's about wanting that next step in Him not knowing what it is but finding yourself taking a step higher than where you were spiritually before. It goes side by side in seeking Him and his word and what He has for us. 

God touched me last night and just call out to Him. Even if you feel unsure of anything and everything. God sees your heart and He will answer your prayer. 

Isn't He great?

Cy

Another Day Another Dollar

Yesterday was day 2 workin on tunes for a client. I only got to do a song and a half. I wasn't as inspired compared to the other day. It happens. I didn't let it get the best of me so I just looked for other things to do.

I wrote new trance tune which I'm submitting as an entry for something. It's been years since I last did any trance and it was quite fun gettin back to it. I was forced cuz trance was the requirement. Pray that it gets accepted:)

That was my whole day. Working on tracks and eating in between. Later I'll be doing Some cleaning so no tracks for today.

I'm thinking of adding interesting posts or links in every entry to make your visit worth it. I just hope it's nice enough to post. I'm not sure anyway if people read this haha

This is my life. At home almost everyday unless I got client meetings or outside projects.

Anyway... I miss playing regularly with the band I have to do something about it.

Cy

Workload

Last night, I started to pour in the hours for my biggest project of the year. I prepared a bit already for it but dove into the details last night...

What I did to prepare... I needed fresh sounds samples/sources so I downloaded some. You can also find tons for free at freesound.org I then prepared the song files and saved it even as bare files. I saved them with titles related to the direction of the track. Like "Ring for Bling" is gonna be filled with different sounds of phones ringing. Something like that. 

I then proceeded to download the pegs off the server of our client and went thru each peg one by one to listen closely to the direction of the project.

And so this is where God really shines... well apart from giving me this huge project...

I was planning on doing a track a day... I was able to finish 3 tonight. Praise God!!!! I didn't expect it. I hope I can finish another 3 later then I'm done since I only have to make 6!

I feel GREAT whenever I'm productive...

Thank you, Lord!

Cy

Joke of the day :)

A small boy is sent to bed by his father...[Five minutes later] "Da-
ad... " "What? " "I'm thirsty. Can you bring me a drink of water? "
"No. You had your chance. Lights out. " [Five minutes later] "Da-
aaaad... " "WHAT? " "I'm THIRSTY... Can I have a drink of water?? " "I
told you NO! If you ask again I'll have to spank you!! " [Five minutes
later] "Daaaa-aaa AAAAD... " "WHAT??!! " "When you come in to spank
me, can you bring me a drink of water? "

I Wrote a School Hymn!

One of the dreams of a songwriter and musician is for people to sing your song or have your music be played to people to be enjoyed...

God blessed me with something a step further...

I wrote a school hymn from lyrics, music and overall production. Now my song will not just be played but sung by a lot of people... daily!

Before I continue I'd share the lyrics to get it out of the way hehe

Power of Faith Hymn

Here we come blue, red, black and white

We march in with the Light

of Wisdom, knowledge lifting our lives

Onto greater heights

We call you home. We find a family

Inside your walls, tomorrow's security

The future holds something brighter for me

Oh the Power of Faith carry me

As we pledge our loyalty

To the Father and to one another

We shall make history

Oh the Power of Faith carry me

and the whole world shall see

the life of God that lives inside of me

making each of us extraordinary 

More than we could be

Short Story behind it...

I was asked to do something non-traditional since most hymns are either played with a March feel or kinda slow. The owner of the school didn't want any of that. They wanted it to sound fresh and new, easy to sing, and fun. I'm happy to say I was able to meet their requirements hehe

So last Monday, I attended their annual Banquet as they launched the song. It was a fun experience because it was my first time to write something like that. I gave a short speech about how it happened and how I felt about the project. It was such a blessing. Even the parents and students liked how it turned out, which gave me a great boost! They introduced it by a presentation of singers singing it to launch it and they repeated the song right after as they invited the whole school population to stand and sing their new hymn. I was like a proud father to be honest. I had a big smile on my face when I stood up with them. 

God never ceases to amaze me at the opportunities He opens for me. I'm sure there's more to come this year!

Cy

Been A While

I took some time off something like "blog cleansing" if there's such a thing. Rested also from updating Twitter and Facebook and tried to focus on the real world hehe

It's been a great few days and I'd just like to share some highlights...

Last Saturday we went to another Wedding Expo. It's fun. Quite a different experience. You should try it one time even for the heck of it hehe

Last Monday, I attended a banquet in Makati Shangri la for a school because I made their school hymn. Imagine that! I'll save the whole story for another entry.

Tues, I wasn't able to do any music work at all. Instead, when I got up, I gave the dogs a bath. Right after that, I just had a snack and went on cleaning the house for 10 hours straight. I shall also save the whole story for another blog entry as I'm trying to catch up on my one-a-day equivalent :)

Wed, I paid my down payment for my new guitar. Was able to sell a few items for my first payment. I'm just waiting for my guitars to be sold so I can pay for the rest. I can't buy unless I sell. Nice rule for me hehe

So that's it. If you haven't seen Green Zone, please do. It's a really nice movie. Well, for me at least. I liked it A LOT.

Till then...

Cy

Photo Owner

Expect God to be always on time!

His wonders never ceases to amaze me even in the simplest things...

Like earlier today, I had to take a cab (coz of coding) and right before I stepped out of the car, a cab appears. It actually saved me from walking in the blistering heat...

And even in the big things he always continues to do so...

Managing finances as a freelancer is quite hard. I was supposed to write "REALLY HARD" but the fact that God's on my side, I have been able to manage all these years. He has never failed to come at the perfect time. 

I recently tweeted about the irony of March being my birthday month along with it being the month I spend the most due to my car registrations, bills, insurance dues, etc... I was looking at my what I had in the bank and if I were just anyone else, I'd be scared... really scared. I thought about it but never felt that I should be afraid of my finances. God is bigger than any financial problem we may have. 

What did he do? He sent me new big projects to pay for EVERYTHING with money to spare... and He's even lined up more projects for me to secure EVERYTHING that I need to spend on. Even for my Wedding, God had made sure that He sent a project to cover for it. That's how GREAT our God is. 

He loves you and has always been just knocking at your door. If you don't have a relationship with Him yet, send me a message. I'll introduce you to the greatest person I know :)

Cy

Overwhelmed...

Things lined up and stuff to finish... You might not believe it...

silverfilter dance album - mastering stage. almost done.

The silverfilter alt-rock album - need to finish the last song then vocal recording and off to mixing and mastering. I need to rush this coz this ball's rolling fast. Sponsor's waiting for it and we'll be shooting the music video of the single in a few weeks!

The silverfilter electronic album - the album that's been on my hard disc for half a decade. vocal recording and mixing. This one's rolling as well.

Lovecore album - vocal recording and mixing. We NEED to finish this asap

Plus on top of that, expenses, bills, stuff to sell, and more...

All in the coming 3 months.

My mind's about to pop...

Cy

Joke of the day :)

Two guys are in a locker room when one guy notices the other guy has a
cork in his ass. He says, "How'd you get a cork in your ass? " The
other guy says, "I was walking along the beach and I tripped over a
lamp. There was a puff of smoke, and then a red man in a turban came
oozing out. He said, "I am Tonto, Indian Genie. I can grant-um you one
wish. " And I said, "No shit. "

Excited...

If you've noticed, I've been posting my stuff for sale lately. 

Truth is, I'm saving up to pay for another guitar. Not sure if I've mentioned it here before but new rule is, don't shell out for another guitar... sell items to pay for it so that's what I've been doing. I'm selling all the guitars that I don't get to use. So that includes a few guitars, cases, and whatever I can find that I don't use. It's just been a blessing that God's blessed me with enough items to sell for it haha

I'm pretty excited about my new guitar coming. I already reserved it from the seller so it's just a matter of time to sell my stuff and finally pick the new guitar up. It's not exactly "new" but it's in GREAT condition and if I got it new, I won't be able to afford it at the moment hahaha

So there... I'm glad God sent me a buyer already and was able to sell my Fender guitar case earlier.

What's left to sell?

Epiphone Les Paul Custom Black Beauty - 28k

Epiphone Flying V - 25k upgraded pickups, setup, schaller locks, 

Washburn Acoustic Guitar - 6k for now just to get the extra cash for the purchase.

Tweed Keyboard Case - 4k

Roland JP8000 Virtual Analog Synth - 25k

So there. I'm confident God will send buyers my way soon so expect an announcement of my new axe soon!

Cy

Firsts

Just came from our very first gig as The Silverfilter with some bandmates from Lovecore and a new bassist for TS. We did 4 songs from my upcoming album and as much as we had rehearsed, I guess it was "that" inevitable first gig. We were not as confident, "raw" in a slightly negative sense, and we managed to churn out a few mistakes throughout the set. It was funny and weird at the same time but I guess that's how it is (or not). We had fun though and it was a learning experience. It's nice to start from scratch again coming from Lovecore and be not as "tight" as a band to find our way once again with TS this time around. 

We'll get there :)

Cy

Selling 2 of my beloved guitars

Anybody interested?

Epiphone Flying V MIK

- fully setup by Jun Castro (freakin sweet low action)

- Equipped with Seymour Duncan's (jazz neck, Alnico bridge) : pups alone sulit na. We all know how much these go for anyway.

- Comes with original Epiphone flying V hardcase, which retails for almost 5 grand.

- add the setup costs, pups, and hardcase and you know you're getting the guitar itself for cheap :)

- 25k fixed

Epiphone Les Paul Custom MIK

- faded gold hardware (i'd like to say it has that relic'd look)

- well cared for

- will come with deluxe softcase

- 28 fixed

PLEASE NO TRADES. I love these guitars so I'm not posting this to sell it cheap.

Thanks for lookin! God bless!

09175004517

Cy

Is Lomography Really For Me!?

I've always wanted to get into photography. Even with my simple point and shoot, I even joined the little photography club we had in church. I just never got around to getting myself a DSLR. I've always wanted to but my musician side of me keeps on saying "that's already a japanese Fender Strat!" so I never bought one...

So Bernice decided to give me a Lomo cam instead. 

At first, I was really excited about it but with just the 1st roll, I stocked it up for 2 years.

Just the other day, I decided to pick it up again. I even bought myself a really nice flash for it, which I kinda spent a little on to make sure I continue with it haha

Now comes the "fun" part...

As a noob in this lomo thing, I failed to rewind the film properly that when I opened the cam door to remove the film, I accidentally exposed my 1st roll (which mattered coz it's the 1st). BIG MISTAKE. now I wasted my first memories shooting from my lomo cam...

Then I decided today to open the box of the flash I got... lo and behold, it didn't have an adaptor for my particular cam. It had an adaptor for all lomo cams EXCEPT mine...

Now if that didn't make my day, I then decided to make do with what fit and tried on the flash. Hooked it up and fired away... click... no flash... wind... click... no flash... wow pare... decided to try it on Berns' cam... click... flash! Ok great... now the flash I bought won't work with my cam. What am I supposed to do now!? Get a new cam!? That wasn't in the plan...

I went home feeling that everything's falling down the drain.

Cy

It's My Birthday...

So I'm excused from putting a long entry today haha

Another year older and wiser by God's grace.

I shall make this year count big time!

Watch out for it!

All the best,
Cy