tala @ so-phobic

5 minutes after my post below, Ploghost goes back up. LOL. I’ll test drive the site for a week before the final move.

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Yesterday was the first day of New Worlds 3. We were able to make the booth presentable enough. Many thanks to the guys who braved the Ingress, and to TPTS, for giving us some nylon thread and lending us some supplies. One of the activities we planned for the Con was a Face Painting and Henna Tattoo station at our booth. Aside from the artists’ own designs, we printed out the b&w chapter icons for some WoT-inspired designs. The tattoo artists were polite and were good. I especially liked the way they did the sunburst design symbolizing the Whitecloaks. We made some pretty good money too. So far so good. Then we got screwed over by a charming group of people.

Charmed Pinoy (yes, I have no scruples naming names), a member-group of the New Worlds Alliance, had the same Face Painting and Henna Tattoo service over at their booth. Their takings were probably on the poor side, so they approached the leaders of the NWA and demanded that our group discontinue our Face Painting and Henna Tat services.

Here’s a backgrounder, our side of the story. Aj, our founder, asked one of the NWA Council members if we could do the Face Painting and Henna thing for our booth at the Con. Dana also made some inquiries through YM. We were told that the Council would have to seek approval from Ayala Center first, since every activity has to go through them, to be deemed suitable or not. Dana brought up our list of activities during one of the Saturday meetings at the Via Astris HQ, and does not recall Charmed Pinoy mentioning that they themselves were providing the service. After all, if Charmed Pinoy was listening to our reps at that meeting, they would have reacted to 2 groups providing the same service, thereby competing with each other. Which is at odds with the whole purpose of the Alliance. We were given the go signal. Days later, Charmed Pinoy announces on the NW3 Mailing List that they were going to have Face Painting and Henna Tats as activities. Great.

Therein lies PTM’s only mistake in this matter. We should have called the attention of the Council to resolve the duplication of activities. If we had done that, all the unpleasantness could have been prevented. However, I am not excusing Charmed Pinoy’s rude behavior towards PTM. Ditto with the (IMHO) unfair treatment that we got from the Council.

After Charmed Pinoy made their demand, we were asked to discontinue our activity. Aj pleaded our case and even tried to negotiate a compromise with Charmed Pinoy. PTM is not a member of the Alliance. We only have Guest status. We cannot apply for membership because we do not have a live action movie, one of the major requirements for membership. However, we know what the term Alliance means. Our aim is not to alienate, especially since an honest mistake was made by all parties - PTM, Charmed Pinoy, AND the NWA Council. The decision of the Council to deny us our activity is unfair. Even one of the Council members has stated that she cannot tell who proposed the activity first, us or Charmed Pinoy. I would like to think better of the Council, but I can’t help but think that in order to resolve this matter quickly, the Council applied some PTM is just a guest group anyway, Charmed Pinoy is an Alliance member shit. Protocol may demand that you give the Alliance member priority, but YOU made a mistake too. This oversight was your mistake as much as ours and Charmed Pinoy. Be fair. That’s all we ask. If we are truly trying to help each other, then I’m sure a compromise that would benefit ALL the parties concerned could’ve been reached.

I do not speak for my fellow Sitters and PTM members, but I am having second thoughts about trying to join the Alliance. What good is an Alliance of backstabbing members? Of groups who screw each other? We may be eager to join NWA, but IMHO, we’re not _that_ desperate. How can you entice other future groups to join when you treat your guests this way? In the words of Sirius Black,

If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals. - Sirius Black, p.525, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (emphasis mine)

So future groups out there, this is how the NWA treats their guests.

As for Charmed Pinoy, that was a low blow. You could’ve approached us first and we could’ve tried to resolve this matter ourselves. You could have taken time to hear our side first, because believe me, we were just as baffled as you are. But being the utterly charming group that you are, you just had to pull the plug on us, didn’t you? I don’t care if I’m being petty when I say that you may need the money more than we do. We don’t see the Con as a fund raising activity. We see it as way to expose people to the world that we have discovered, and to find fellow fans. But hey, I hope you make a lot of money tomorrow, seeing as you are desperate to milk it. I guess we’ll just view it as our way of helping you with your future payments for your future website. Nice Multiply site, by the way. Really reflects the Pinoy Charmed fandom.

That’s it, I’ve wasted enough webspace on these cretins.

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Ploghost is moving servers. I can’t access my account there yet, no idea yet for how long. Sorry Pia, will have to tread on your generosity a bit longer.

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Who wrote the script? The dialogue was off and had no continuity, and Padme’s lines sounded like they were translated from one of those Pinoy romance pocketbooks. What a waste of such a talented actress.

They chose the wrong ending IMHO. The scene with Vader and Palpatine (side view), while looking at the Death Star (or whatever it’s called) should have been the ending. The Tatooine scene should have happened first, new hope or no new hope.

Don’t you find it odd that Luke was given to his relatives? Wasn’t the intent to hide the twins from Palpatine? Luke Skywalker, how obvious can you get? Even if (the dead) Padme was disguised as still being pregnant, I would have thought that Palpatine would’ve some suspicions and would’ve double checked.

Loved Yoda and the Wookies. Loved the scene where Anakin walks into the Jedi temple with the troopers. Other great scenes for me:

• General Grievous vs Obi-Wan: 4 light sabers! Woohoo!
• Yoda vs Palpatine
• Anakin vs Obi-wan
• R2 cutting off a droid’s hand that was holding a gun aimed at him.
  Droid: Ouch!

As for the execution of Order 66: it could’ve been done better. The killing of the Younglings gave me shivers though. Maybe because I had no empathy for the Jedi. I didn’t really know the Jedi who were killed since I wasn’t exposed to them, only to Yoda and Mace (among others).

What’s up with General Grievous’ cough? Remind you of someone from Krynn? Caramon, make my tea. *cough cough*

There was a kid with a Darth Vader mask. I wanted to steal it.

And Vader’s voice was wrong!!!

Cross posted at the test site.

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