On Holy Ground

April 30th:
Just got transferred to work and live in beautiful Dubai , UAE! WOW!!!
Now this is a city that knows how to live!!! Beautiful sunny days and
warm balmy evenings. It's like New York City minus all the crooks,
murderers, and drunks. What a place! I watched the sunset from a deck
chair on my beautiful bedroom verandah. It was beautiful. I've finally
found my home. I love it here.

May 13th:
Really heating up. Got to 95 degrees today. Not a problem. Live in an
air- conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car, and everything is
fully air-conditioned. What a pleasure to see the sun everyday like
this. I'm turning into a sun worshiper.

May 30th:
Had the backyard landscaped with tropical plants today around our
lovely pool. Lots of palms and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No
more mowing lawn for me. Another scorcher today, but I love it here.
Heat is no problem at all.

June 10th:
The temperature hasn't been below 95 all week even during the night.
How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least today it's kind
of windy though. But getting used to the heat is taking longer than I
expected.

July 15th:
Fell asleep by the pool. Got 3rd degree burns over 90% of my body.
Missed 5 days of work. What a dumb thing to do in this lovely city. I
learned my lesson though. Got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like
this.

July 20th:
Kitty (our cat) sneaked into the car when I left for the office. By
the time I got to the hot car for my lunch break, Kitty had died and
swollen up to the size of a shopping bag and stank up the $60,000
Audi. I told the kids that she ran away. The car now smells like
Wiskettes and cat shit. I learned my lesson though. No more pets in
this heat.

July 25th :
The wind sucks. It feels like a giant fucking hair dryer in here!!!
And it's hot as hell. The home air-conditioner died. The fucking AC
repairman charged 500 Dirhams just to drive over and tell me it was
broken in fucking Hindu English or some language that I couldn't
understand.

July 30th:
Air conditioner still broken. Been sleeping outside by the pool for 3
nights now because it is 7000 fucking degrees inside. Bloody 2,000,000
Dirhams house and we can't even go inside. Why did I ever come here?
Fuck the sun. Fuck the wind. Fuck the freakin' ocean. And fucking
locals walk around dressed in white tablecloths followed by little
black female ninjas. Fucking crazy town.

August 4th:
It's 114 fucking degrees today. Finally got the ol' air-conditioner
fixed. It cost 2,000 fucking Dirhams and got the temperature down to
25, but the fucking humidity makes the house feel 30 fucking Dubai
degrees. Stupid terrorist repairman. I hate this stupid fucking place.

August 8th:
If another local wiseass cracks, 'Hot enough for you today?' I'm going
to fucking whack him all the way back to his goddamn desert. Fucking
Dubai ; by the time I get to work with all that fucking traffic and
heat, the car's radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet,
and I smell like a baked cat!!!

August 9th:
Tried to run some errands today because it is fucking Friday. Wore
shorts and sat on the black leather seats in my Audi. The seat was so
fucking hot I thought my ass was on fire. I lost 2 layers of flesh and
all the hair on the back of my legs and my fucking ass. Now my car
smells like burnt hair, fried ass, and a baked cat.

August 10th:
The weather report might as well be a fucking recording. Hot, humid
and fucking sunny. Hot, humid and fucking sunny. Hot, humid and
fucking sunny. It's been too hot to do anything for 2 damn months and
the weatherman dude wearing the fucking white tablecloth on TV says it
might reall y warm up next week. Does it ever rain in this damn fucking
place? What is next, a fucking hell freezing over wave?

August 14th:
WELCOME TO HELL!!! Temperature got to 120 today. Now the
air-conditioner's gone in my fucking Audi. The fucking Audi serviceman
said, 'Hot enough for you today?' Fuck him and fuck Audi. My wife had
to spend the 7,000 Dirham to bail my ass out of jail for assaulting
that stupid fucking Paki bastard wiseass. Fuck Dubai ! What kind of a
sick demented fucking idiot would want to live in this shit hole?

August 15th: (Independence Day ?)
Fuck this place. I'm off back to New York

 

At last... We did it!  Special thanks to my 'brad', Mr. Jeffrey Alcala... We will work again soon.  To all the people who made this happen... Thank you and Cheers!

 

Sherman So (Director of Photography, ABS-CBN), for all the help and encouragement while I was building my portfolio.

Rachel Lobangco, for all your ideas and for posing for me. 

Sao Salinda, for the beautiful model you referred to me. I hope to work with you in the near future.

Rollan Rodriguez of the Brownmonkeys, for making my logo... You rock! I'm glad to meet you guys and I quote, "a very special group of artist" based in Dubai. 

Arnold Fabella (Creative Director of JWT, Dubai), for designing my website... If not for your pity, I would still be stuck on page one.

Mr. Murli Patni (Professional Photographer and Founder of ARP Studio), for your support, guidance and for believing in me... I'm more confident now and ready.

Dominic Ball (Tech1 Solutions Associate and IT Manager), for hosting my website and making sure that I'm on the right track... Thank you for taking away my worries.

And to my dearest Kyle, for the inspiration... This is specially for you.  

 

Here we go... www.aimeebphotography.com

 

Good heavens! I have assignments at 'the' Gulf News! Super excited about this opportunity. It's a steady income and definitely will not look bad on one's CV. One week to prove myself and hopefully they will like what I do passionately. First job, opening of the first S.T. Dupont Boutique in UAE at the Waterfront Center, Festival City. This is going to be another learning experience about so many cultures... I can't wait.;o)

Sure I am that this day we are masters of our fate, that the task, which has been set before us is not above our strengths; that its pangs and toils are not beyond my endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us.

-- Winston Churchill



Life is such, it gives you a lot and also can take away so much… But believing that your life has meaning and purpose makes it easier to survive each passing day. Believing that it is within your grasp makes it all worth it. Life is good… Life is good...

A wise teacher once wrote to me... "Give the gift that keeps on giving: a little self-confidence. You've made it this far and you can tackle the next challenge and the challenge after that. As naive and Pollyanna-ish as this might sound, so many disappointments and failures in life stem from our inability to believe in ourselves. So give yourself a gift – the benefit of the doubt – and you will be rich beyond any measure of money or fame.”

How can you not move forward? Life is good.

It took me 4 days and 3 sleepness nights upon deciding on finaly buying 'my imac'. The Dell 9200 is my first choice and mind you, it is one machine that you would really want to get your hands on... With its hyper-threading and more. The imac is just so right for my ikea bedroom and I just can't let go of that little detail. Tsk,tsk,tsk... I just hope that this machine will not let me down. So far, so good though.

'just an attention grabber that nobody I invited in my place even try to comment on what I did with my little bedroom...

My first time to join the Betterphoto contest and I won 2nd place... Wow! How cool is that?!  It makes me more confident doing what I do best. 

Here is the link: http://www.betterphoto.com/forms/discussionDetail.asp?threadID=628319

You are The Devil

Materiality. Material Force. Material temptation; sometimes obsession

The Devil is often a great card for business success; hard work and ambition.

Perhaps the most misunderstood of all the major arcana, the Devil is not really "Satan" at all, but Pan the half-goat nature god and/or Dionysius. These are gods of pleasure and abandon, of wild behavior and unbridled desires. This is a card about ambitions; it is also synonymous with temptation and addiction. On the flip side, however, the card can be a warning to someone who is too restrained, someone who never allows themselves to get passionate or messy or wild - or ambitious. This, too, is a form of enslavement. As a person, the Devil can stand for a man of money or erotic power, aggressive, controlling, or just persuasive. This is not to say a bad man, but certainly a powerful man who is hard to resist. The important thing is to remember that any chain is freely worn. In most cases, you are enslaved only because you allow it.