And then there were four...

Heroes have to leave at one time or another and in their place springs new heroes... Good luck and learn the most you can from every experience.

Toughies, softies

Sometimes you really have to be tough to do what you want. A lot of times others barely understand. That's pretty lonesome. But it's part of being heroic, overcoming difficulties for the things that are really worthwhile.

Hero Horde

During my temporary assignment in Cebu, I chanced upon a bunch of heroes who know what it is to make sacrifices just to be able to do good.

4 of 98-6

The last batch of super-powered yuppies from SVI in 1998... After nine years, who's still single and who's had a super bouncing baby boy?

The Simulators!

There are a bunch of these new heroes around and batches of them come in almost every month. What's so special about them? I hate to brag but maybe learning a few tricks from me would be one {Insert booming almost-maniacal-villain-but-really-a-great-hero laugh track here}.

Super twins!

Not too often do you come by pretty super-heroines... No, they're not twins; they're cousins.

Good-natured guys

Each individual's uniqueness is a power in itself. However, life always makes us choose- whether to side on good or to side on evil, whether to fight or to give-up, have negative things pull us down or use hard-learned lessons to grow.

An alternative

Sometimes when you most need help, Superman, Batman, the Flash, or Wonder Woman are somewhere else helping someone else or are on a mission to prevent some other big catastrophe. You don't need to look further because there are a lot of heroes out there to help you. Some may not be the heroes you've envisioned- in colorful tights and with grand entrances- but they can be just as effective. They're like generic medicine- you should treat them just as special because they can get the job done as well.

Big-hearted heroes

After long days of battling evil, heroes need to relax too. This afternoon, a bunch of them converged at Nipa Hut in Pasig and ate, drank, had laughs, sung karaoke, and took pictures. Relaxing with peers is one way of recharging before going back to the real world where evil lurks in every corner, even in the internet!

The Secret Six

Send in your fingermasked pictures to fingermask@jaybeecc.com

Click the title above or here to find out what your superhero name and powers are.

Clockwise from top-left:

Name: Red Flame
Secret Identity: SECRET! :)
Special Power: Invisible Tentacles
Transportation: Shamu the Elephant
Weapon: Quantum Rifle
Costume: Stainless Steel Leotard
Tragic Flaw: Fear of rodents
Favorite Food: Cheetos

Name: Ice Runner
Secret Identity: SECRET NGA!
Special Power: Bionic Blast
Transportation: Quantum Train
Weapon: Ion Blade
Costume: Spandex Robe
Tragic Flaw: Fear of falling
Favorite Food: Lasagna

Name: Demon Wolf
Secret Identity: SECRET DIN!
Special Power: Psychotronic Spear
Transportation: Shamu the Elephant
Weapon: Neutron Flare
Costume: Bronze Helmet
Tragic Flaw: Addicted to corn dogs
Favorite Food: Strawberries

Name: Golden Girl
Secret Identity: SECRET SABI EH!
Special Power: Psionic Breath
Transportation: Alien Skateboard
Weapon: Meson Flare
Costume: Dragonhide Robe
Tragic Flaw: Addicted to corn dogs
Favorite Food: Cheez Whiz

Name: Captain Person
Secret Identity: KULET AH!
Special Power: Psychotronic Stick
Transportation: Nuclear Minivan
Weapon: Electron Cutlass
Costume: Fireproof Underwear
Tragic Flaw: Clumsiness
Favorite Food: Sardines

Name: Red Runner
Secret Identity: ...
Special Power: Nuclear Gaze
Transportation: Electric Submarine
Weapon: Meson Cutlass
Costume: Spandex Sport Coat
Tragic Flaw: Addicted to love
Favorite Food: Sardines

Super team!

In a rare photo op, five members of the super team, Nominators, two members of the Night Owls, and one-third of the trio, the Super Lolos, gamely pose for papparazzi.

Front (L-R): Husband and wife tandem Chili boy and Spice girl; Conjoined-at-the-hip kids Roller Girl and Rocker Boy
Back (L-R): Weird Lad; Radar Girl, Treat Man, and Giggle Kid.

Maybe on a future post we'll get to see them using their powers...

Photo courtesy of Radar Girl.

Just one

Aw. I knew it would get harder and harder to find new fingermaskers. Tsk. The world needs more new heroes now... especially since the elections is drawing near. Any sightings? Send your fingermasked pictures to fingermask@jaybeecc.com

Threesome

What a concept! What if every living person, when they walk out onto the street, does the fingermask? You'd see a lot of sweaty armpits! Hmm, will be going to Lago de Oro in Batangas later. Would I be lucky enough to get /slash/ not too shy to ask some locals or foreigners to do the fingermask? You'll find out as soon as I picture them in the pose as I'll be blogging straight from Batangas!

New heroes

Send in your fingermasked pictures to fingermask@jaybeecc.com

I wasn't able to get manong taxi driver or Shakey's crewmember do the fingermask today but there's always hope of discovering new heroes tomorrow!

Fingermasks

I don't know if there's actually a term for what's shown in the pictures above but searching for finger masks or hand mask or fingers around eyes in the internet just points me to beauty-regimen links mostly. So, let me tell you how this all began...

My two co-workers and I passed by the office clinic to measure our weights when another co-worker stepped in to get some meds. Now I said I would take his picture (top-left) and he gamely posed with his hands upside-down and forefingers encircling his eyes. (I would later ask him what that thing-with-his-hands-pose was called and he just said it was an old whatever that was like a mask) When my two-co-workers and I got back to our cubes, we ate our lunch, then started taking pictures of ourselves in the same "finger/mask" pose and we had so much fun with it because first, we didn't know how to bend our arms and hands and fingers initially; and second, the pictures were hilarious with multiplying chins, plumped up faces, missing necks etc...

I wonder if I can convince ordinary folk I meet on the street to pose the same way? Well if anyone can point me to a site that has info on the origins of (from this point) Fingermasks, please drop me a line. And if you want to submit photos of people you know in the same pose, feel free to send them to fingermask@jaybeecc.com