Year: 2011

weekend update

Shameless plug: My page and Usok interview are now up on Rocket Kapre. Thanks Paolo C. for all the hard work!

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This week’s “weekend” started on Wednesday for me. I used up my accumulated days-off after working for nine straight days (!).

On Wednesday I was finally able to introduce Jaykie to my friend, Eula. Pancake House at Market Market + Girbaud (I bought a wallet for my father) +  Payless (I bought shoes!) + CBTL at High Street before heading home.

I like Payless. Shoes are relatively cheap and are arranged according to size. So you need only know your size and stay in front of that shelf trying things on.

I bought a pair of purple flats. I have a lot of purple things, but no purple shoes yet.

Jaykie bought leather shoes.

Payless gave us a huge-ass paper bag, haha.

Thanks Eula for the earrings!

Eula and her mom have an online shop by the way. They sell earrings, headbands, and bags. Check out Chic Collective. :)

On Thursday I went jogging in UP. I miss jogging here. I used to jog here all the time, back when I still lived in UP Bliss. Jaykie and I are planning to make a weekly habit out of it. (He wasn’t with me that Thursday though; he had class.)

I wasn’t too fond of Friday and Saturday. Too many blue notes. There’s that trip in February to either look forward to or watch with dread as it approaches. Ah, money. Ah, schedule. It’s awful to feel awful about a looming vacation.

Wish the following weeks are happier.

our story begins

The bullet is already in the brain; it won’t be outrun forever, or charmed to a halt. In the end it will do its work and leave the troubled skull behind, dragging its comet’s tail of memory and hope and talent and love into the marble hall of commerce. That can’t be helped.

– “Bullet in the Brain”, Tobias Wolff

Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain” is one of those stories that, no matter how many times I read it, will always bowl me over. Here, Anders, an obnoxious critic waiting in line inside a bank, is shot at close-range. But that’s not the story. The story unfolds as the bullet, travelling “at a pathetically sluggish, glacial pace”, moves through the man’s brain and sets off a single recollection. Just that one beautiful, simple recollection, that stays with him until his (presumable) death. Anders is one of those acerbic, annoying people I wouldn’t even want to meet, but in this story, I mourn for him. The story makes me re-check my early judgment. How little we know of other people! So little that what we think we understand doesn’t even count. If seen from outside, the shooting scene would have only made me scoff (and maybe even say, He had it coming?), but Wolff took readers inside Ander’s head, inside scenes of his life, his regrets, his sadness. Wolff writes with such a forgiving eye and a tender perspective that he makes us see, especially through this story, that there is something to mourn for in every person, even one who seems to have no humanity left in him. How unfair that the bullet can’t be outrun forever! How awful that it can’t be charmed to a halt!

(And I wouldn’t even talk about technique; it’s clear that a writer who is able to convey all of this in a few pages is a genius.)

Read Bullet in the Brain here.

And then read Our Story Begins, because “Bullet in the Brain”‘s just one gem out of many. I have yet to finish the New Stories section, but I can say this: this is one of the best, if not the best, short story collection I have ever read.

weight woes

I weighed myself two hours ago, and I weighed 70 kilos (154 pounds). Taking my height into consideration (5’6″, or 167.64 cms.), and keeping in mind that I am Asian (our healthy BMI is lower than that of Americans) I am overweight.

I remember weighing only 120 in 2003, first year of college. So this is of course very depressing.

Diet plus exercise. I’ll weigh myself again on the 30th. Gah. I really want to go back to 120 pounds again.

dec. 31 to jan. 1

I told my father not to buy firecrackers anymore for very obvious reasons, and I was glad he followed my order advice. The paper was put to bed early so I was able to take the office shuttle to Cubao and get on a bus by 6:30 p.m. When I reached home (8:30 or so) some house was blasting the neighborhood with ear-splitting music. That house turned out to be our house.

My father, who was already drunk, had set up his sound system on the terrace. Minutes later I heard my father singing. An hour later he started deejaying. No shit. “Happy New Year!” he’d shout, then he’d play an 80’s song. “Good song, good song!” At one point the volume was turned up so high my sister handed him my brother’s headphones to protect his ears. Then we closed the door to the terrace while he’s inside because we couldn’t hear ourselves think. Haha! He didn’t mind. He was bopping his head to the music when we went downstairs to drink.

My brother became quite talkative (and dizzy) after his third glass. Every now and then my father would come downstairs (still wearing the headphones) and practically bellow at us, saying that he loved our mother! And that my brothers will never find a woman as precious as her! And my sister and I will never find a guy as handsome as him!

Okay! Calm down!

Craziest media noche ever.

And we didn’t even have firecrackers.

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Also brought home my compli copy of the Inquirer book.

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The night of January 1 was time well spent with Jaykie’s family. I enjoyed the macaroni salad!

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I should really take note of the stories I read online.

Fiction find

“re: The Last Man on Earth” from Expanded Horizons

2010 reads

First off, good news in the writing department: after a minor rewrite, Expanded Horizons has accepted my story, “Intersections”. Sci-fi, this one. The editor’s looking at a February run date. What a way to start the year!

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Anyway, I just want to share

The books and stories and poems I read (and loved) in 2010

in no particular order

  1. The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint
  2. “Jumper Cable: The Crossing” in the PGS: Christmas issue
  3. We Are All Welcome Here
  4. 20th Century Ghosts
  5. A Storm of Swords
  6. Lucky
  7. The Killing Joke
  8. Twisted 8 1/2
  9. Philippine Speculative Fiction V
  10. Hunger Games trilogy
  11. Scott Pilgrim
  12. The Unnamed
  13. Tales of Beedle the Bard
  14. The Society of Others
  15. All Over But the Shoutin’
  16. Video
  17. The River King
  18. A Clash of Kings
  19. Dot.bomb
  20. House of Leaves
  21. The Likeness
  22. Ender’s Game
  23. The Beauty Myth
  24. “We Heart Vampires!!!” from Strange Horizons
  25. “The Six Skills of Madame Lumiere” from Beneath Ceaseless Skies
  26. “The Cassandra Project” in Lightspeed
  27. “Beach Blanket Spaceship” in Clarkesworld
  28. “No Two Stones” in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly
  29. “What Sieglinde Serpentslayer Said to the King”in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly (poetry)
  30. “Kali Yuga” in Innsmouth Free Press
  31. December Lights
  32. “New York City as Temporal Measurement” in The Collagist (poetry)
  33. “Let Me Explain” (poetry)
  34. “Colosseum” (poetry)
  35. “Why You Should Never Marry a Poet” (poetry)
  36. Usok # 2
  37. “The Facts of the Case” in High Chair (poetry)

I’m sure I’ve read certain stories/poems that I just forgot to take note of, but this is more or less my list.

I should read more online pieces. Everyone should. There are some gems there.