Month: May 2010

lost

Photo from here.

The series is nearing it’s end and I’ve only just finished the first season. Late viewer is late, oh my. I’ve always wanted to see it after the first-season hype, but by the time I found the time (daming time) to see it the bad reviews are already trickling in. Apparently, the plane crash survivors got off the island at some point – then they went back? WHAT? But anyway. First season. So Season 1’s final episode was underwhelming (That’s the smoke monster? That’s it?), so I have a lot of questions, so I find the doctor’s life story boring, so I’m wondering what Michelle Rodriguez is doing in this scene, so the cast members execute perfect blocking every time they have to look over there – but my God, it’s riveting. It makes good TV, no doubt. I will forever love those flashback scenes featuring Locke and Sun, and that scene where they figure out that the message has been repeating itself for 16 years, and Jin’s back story left me teary-eyed. I will watch Season 2 of course. I want to know what’s in that hatch they just blew up.

(NO SPOILERS PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.)

seventh

Nice quiet Monday dinner and coffee to celebrate our seventh month together. Spaghetti and potato salad and and sausages and peach pancakes and mango crepe and whipped cream (Pancake House) and espresso java chip frappes (Starbucks). Windy day. Nice day.

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Had a pedicure yesterday morning after an effing long time. I’d be spending time in Bohol mostly in flip-flops and my un-pedicured toenails would look er disgusting. So. I like this nail polish because it makes my feet look pale:

The parlor I went to was just across the street from the building where I live, and appeared to cater mostly to old women. Haha. I was the youngest person there. It was like stepping into another planet.

Ate managed to remove the indelible ink from my forefinger! Finally. I would’ve wanted to subject my fingernails to a coat or two of nail polish as well, but how will I get my money from my pocket without ruining my manicure? (LOL.) Anyone here know of a place where they let you dry your nails before pushing you out of the salon?

expanded horizons issue 18: a review

Expanded Horizons, which began publishing stories in 2008, is an online speculative fiction publication that aims to increase diversity in the field, “both in the authors who contribute and in the perspectives presented”. Its specific objectives include increasing the number of women authors in speculative fiction, and increasing authentic ethnic diversity in stories written in this field.

It recently made the longlist of the British Fantasy Awards under the category, “Best Magazine”.

In its latest issue (Issue 18), Expanded Horizons includes stories set in India, Nigeria, the US, and the Philippines, with protagonists ranging from a lonely ghost to a woman who craves human flesh. Here are my impressions of the various stories–obviously, Spoiler Warning applies, so do check out the issue before reading on.

The stories.

weekend zombie

After I got off from work on Thursday (and what a crazy week, jumpstarted by the national elections whew), I just decided to stay in one place and fry my brain with Lost (first season), Mad Men (first season), and some Family Guy and The Simpsons. By “stay in one place” I meant “eat my meals in bed”. It was too hot outside, I was too lazy to write, I was too lazy, period.

Jaykie and I did go out on Friday night to have dinner with my high school friends. Topic? Politics, politics, politics (which to me sounds like work, work, work, but it can’t be helped, what with the current political climate), and Ghia’s stay in Quezon province, where the mall closes at 8:30 p.m. (in Palawan, according to Kuya Wendell, the mall closes at 7:30 p.m. – SURPRISE!) and where you’ll have to suffer a one-hour ride to buy halu-halo.

Some (supposedly candid) pictures. We’re already in Trinoma Conti’s here, after feeding at Pizza Hut:

(Conti’s turtle pie is my favorite.)

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This weekend: Bohol. I’m so looking forward to two quiet days at the beach (no stress, pleaaaaaaaase).

one from denver buston

Source.

Heavy Things

by Denver Buston

the world cannot bear the weightlessness of sparrows

or the confetti of our illegible addresses

the moon’s breathless ascent

the world cannot bear it

so the world makes heavy things

like airplanes

and skyscrapers

like your heart

and heavy things fall down

because the world cannot bear them either

online publications: who benefits?

Here is a fact: we will never run out of stories to read.

This is more evident now than it ever has been before. Online speculative fiction publications easily number in the hundreds, including many new publications looking for worthy submissions and just itching to get up and running (e.g. GigaNotoSaurus and Smash Cake Magazine). Just to illustrate: to date, Duotrope lists166 fledgling markets, or those markets with a publication history of less than six months.

Even the Philippines, horribly late in the technological race, generally speaking, has two active online publishing entities: Rocket Kapre, which has published Usok 1 and the charity anthology Ruin and Resolve; and Estranghero Press, which has published the anthologies The Farthest Shore (secondary worlds) and Demons of the New Year (horror). As in the rest of the world, online publications appear to be a growth industry, as evidenced by the upcoming launch of the POC Review (which is not genre-bound) and (a bit farther into the future) the online version of the Philippine Genre Stories.

So: why an online publication?

Read more here.

(re)gaming life

I’m no gamer. I don’t have the patience, or the required hand-eye coordination. The simplest challenges frustrate me: You mean I have to go to this room first and get this equipment before I can get that equipment to blast open that door – the hell with this, I’m reading a book. I’ve given up on Chrono Cross (too convoluted), Suikoden, Left4Dead (I can’t figure out how to pick up the guns, so I gave up before I could even shoot a zombie), and Resident Evil (too scary; there was one point during the game when a huge crowd of zombies burst through a door – in real life, I threw away my controller). My default gaming strategy, it appears, is that if I can’t get it right the first time, then it probably isn’t worth it. (I don’t apply this to real-life problems, like clothes shopping.)

Then I met my boyfriend, who’s a proud member of the Hobby Gamers’ Circle, a gaming organization based in UP Diliman, a group of like-minded individuals who’d probably throw me down a pit should they ever read this piece of blasphemy.

Read more here.