The LU! Live 2007 event will take place a few days from now (quoting GM Tristan, konting tulog na lang!) and my co-organizers are very much looking forward to it. By the way, SniperAngel, Winter Angel, Jhoi Hize, Anna and yours truly will be having a booth for the LU City side event on November 3 to 4. We'll be selling souvenir items like mugs, pins and slimpotions.
Aside from taking advantage of the chance to make some bucks, we are joining the search for the best booths during the event. This is one of the reasons why we've been having regular planning sessions for the past month either on the Ragnaboards, through YM, or in Manila.
Last Saturday (October 27), we had a meeting in order to discuss the designs of our booths, The Twilight Alchemist Pharmacy and LevelUp Gamers' Pad. We are hoping the booths win the awards that are up for grabs (and get the prize money, hehe) :p
We met at SM North EDSA and we discussed everything we could over lunch and merienda (thanks for the sundae, Rainne!) before we went to the LU office in the Pacific Star Building in Makati for an organizers' meeting called by GM Anael. The meeting went fine, although right now nothing of the things brought up during the said meeting seems to be alright. But that'd be for another post which I'll upload later.
What I'd count as the highlight of my trip was a few hours after the meeting in the LevelUp office. I was eating in Greenwich in the 4th flr of SM Megamall when a small girl (about 7yrs old) quietly approached me (I was sitting alone on a rather inaccessible corner) and held out a note. As I don't have a photographic memory, I can only remember snippets of the supposed letter (it was written in Pilipino) and it goes something like this:
Please give me some money so I can buy some medicine for my mother who has asthma...
I was a mildly surprised at first, but I didn't give her any money. C'mon, it was obviously a ploy by one of those syndicates, who capitalize on charitable people for their nefarious means. The family sitting next to me seemed to have noticed her first, as they handed over a pizza slice to the girl, who left abruptly.
Now, you may ask how I'm so sure it was just a ploy? Well, when the little girl walked away (after being shoo'ed by one of Greenwich staff), I saw her join an older tomboy and another young kid. The tomboy (probably around 14 to 16yrs old) immediately took the pizza slice from the girl and placed it inside a plastic bag. The tomboy sent the young girl away again at once, and the poor kid was once again going from person to person, showing the note. I dunno if the family that gave the pizza slice noticed it too.
It's well-known that syndicates use these methods, and I've seen too much of it on TV so I was able to tell at once. But let me say this, seeing it in person will really affect you especially if you least expect it. I've grown to shrug off beggars in bus/jeepney terminals, but seeing a young girl being bullied to submission inside one of the ten biggest malls in the world is something you just don't see everyday.
I'll upload a picture when I update this post. I'm yet to attach the data cable on the PC for my cellphone.
Update: Here's a blurred picture of the three kids.
The one wearing a lilac dress was the one who approached me. Meanwhile, the one with a red shorts is the tomboy who acted as their guard.
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