Year: 2011

cafe med + cheesecake etc

These food photos were from last week. Delayed post is delayed.

Anyway! The Podium on a Saturday. I loved this lamp inside Cafe Mediterranean:

GPOY (aka what kids call “photo of my face” these days):

I had Portobello Burger:

J had moussaka with Moroccan rice pilaf. Then we tried Cheesecake Etc. for the first time.

I want to go right back.

Love their Choco Dome Cake.

J had Belgian Double Cream.

*

Company anniversary party on Friday. My first, after only two weeks at the job.

(Photo credit: Reg. Thanks!)

(photo credit: Milton. Thanks!)

I still (somehow) feel like an outsider. Hope that changes soon.

second time

That first win was so awesome and so satisfying that I thought there wouldn’t be a second one.

I just feel so happy right now.

“Maps”. First Prize for Poetry, Palanca Awards.

I posted the news elsewhere first (Twitter and Facebook) and immediately got a ton of love. Thank you so much for all the kind words. The show of support was just overwhelming. I can be quite unkind to myself and to my words, so I appreciate it when people take the time to message me to say that they like what I write, and that I should write more.

“Maps” should be uploaded on the Palanca website soon, and I hope you can read it and give me your comments. :)

oh! i forgot to tell you something

Remember the Pretty Little Liars-inspired video that my Inquirer office mates shot as my despedida gift? There’s a recap! TOTALLY.

Love. It. Head on to the link!

various updates

  • Jaykie passed Exam P (the first in a series of actuarial exams) after days of studying and worrying. I knew this the moment he stepped out of the Ateneo Professional School – Salcedo building on July 28. I looked across the street and saw him trying to hide a smile. Of course we celebrated with food and drinks.

Congrats Jaykie, you deserve it!

  • We went to Eastwood on Sunday to watch Captain America. My first time in Eastwood! My Eastwood cherry’s been popped! I know nothing about Captain America, except that he has a shield and a possible hatred of the Soviets. And the Japs. And the Nazis. I think he’s boring, corny, one-dimensional, and a tad bit offensive. Oh look, the personification of America’s Messiah Complex. Certainly not the superhero I’d share an elevator with. But the film gives him  a plausible origin story. (Even the origin of the shield is explained.) He hates bullies. I empathize with him. I enjoyed the movie.

  • Stay after the credits for The Avengers trailer. To quote one enthusiastic YouTube commenter: “I nerded on the floor.”
  • Phil mentioned that adamantium (which makes up Wolverine’s claws and the rest of his bones) is the synthetic version of vibranium (which is used to construct Capt. America’s shield). So the interesting question of the night was, “Who would win, Wolverine, or Captain America?”
  • There was a bazaar, and I ended up buying two bags and a ring. (This was Jaykie’s fault! He’s an enabler!) I almost bought a new pair of shoes but I managed to stop myself. (And also managed to stop Jaykie from not stopping me.)
  • I’m in love with this ring, though.

  • Watched Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank with a large group of friends. (There were 13 of us! Lucky and very noisy 13!) Photo from Almi:

  • The film concerns three young, hopeful, awards-hungry filmmakers out to make Walang-Wala, an indie film about a mother living in the slums who is so poor she is forced to sell her child to a pedophile. How can you gauge sincerity in this kind of creative expression? Can we simply judge the final product and forget about the authors’ intentions? Are the filmmakers producing this film because they sincerely want to tell the mother’s story and inform the world at large of the level of poverty that exists in this country? Or are they doing this for the shock value, the chance to dig an award and travel opportunities from the grit? The filmmakers carry expensive gadgets and talk about poverty  in an expensive coffee place. Does this invalidate their art?  Does the fact that they are well-off reduce the value of the story they are going to tell?  I still don’t know the answers to the questions. But I’m glad an indie film managed to step away and ask them, and make me laugh in the process.

  • New job. I’m enjoying myself, so far. (Stress on the “so far”, as, directly or indirectly, my immediate boss is wont to remind me haha.)

tumblr-ing

So disappointed with LJ and the DDos attacks that it can’t seem to fight, so I just created this:

 

http://collapsingsun.tumblr.com/

Still looks rough, but do follow if you have an account there. Thanks! I swear I’ll make that space prettier!

writing updates

  • Tin Lao shared a link to a quick Goodreads review of PSF VI. The reviewer writes: “The stand-out for me is Eliza Victoria’s ‘The Storyteller’s Curse'” – thanks so much!
  • UPDATE: Just received the cutest email from the Stone Telling editors Rose Lemberg and Shweta Narayan: “You win a prize for one of the shortest consideration periods in the history of Stone Telling. We’re very happy to accept ‘Prayer’ for publication in the fifth issue. It’s wonderful.” This is wonderful!
  • Basement Stories has released the TOC for their fourth issue, which will be available on August 30:

Fiction:

“TimeSnip” by Cat Rambo

“Sugarplum Karma” by Stephen Blount

“A Void Wrapped in a Smile” by Tim Pratt

Poetry:

“Dawn” by WC Roberts

“Remorse and the Pariah” by Michael DeLuca

“Birthing Monsters” by Siobhan Carroll

“Dreams After the Storm” by Eliza Victoria
Nonfiction:

“And All My Idols Are Angels, with the Faces of Cranky Old Men” by George Potter

Continue reading writing updates

pictures from home

Saturday to Tuesday in Bulacan. Ah, what bliss. I missed staying home. Stay home and just read a book or watch a movie and wait for my mother to call up the stairs: “What would you like to have for dinner?” I feel like a child again! One who can ask someone else to do her laundry!

For lack of anything better to do (or for being lazy to do anything better):

  • I re-read The Devil Wears Prada, and almost finished re-watching Project Runway Season 5. Omigod, too much fashion, my teeth are hurting.
  • Realized that: Smart Bro prepaid runs fast in Makati but can be infuriating in Bulacan, so I just use my brother’s Globe Tattoo postpaid.
  • I was finally able to watch Rango. I should have seen that film on the big screen! The animation is remarkable. And it’s hilarious, watch it!

  • I finished The Name of the Wind (and started reading The Wise Man’s Fear, the Kingkiller trilogy’s second book). Starts slow but around four chapters in (when the protagonist Kvothe begins talking to the Chronicler about his life and the University) it grips you and never lets go. I love the lore and the world and how magic is presented in scientific terms. It is Harry Potter-ish in the sense that there is a school, there is magic, there is the jerkwad teacher and the archnemesis and the two friends and the orphaned protagonist who is brilliant but helplessly idiotic at times, but unlike Harry, Kvothe is proactive, and unlike the Potter series, Name of the Wind begins with Kvothe a fully grown man. You don’t grow up with him. You sit down for drinks with him and he just tells you his story. (Thanks Jaykie for another brilliant recommendation.)

  • I may have added a page or two to the new story. Siiiiigh. I write so goddamn slow now. In the olden days I used to be able to sit for eight straight hours just writing, typing, typing, typing away like crazy.
  • Bought my father a new phone as his birthday gift. It’s one of the cheaper phones, he has no use for the touchscreen ones.

  • Saw the Nokia X7 and experienced sudden phone lust. I want it. I. Want. It.

  • But it retails at 18K! BUT IT HAS AN 8-MEGAPIXEL CAMERA! BUT I’M POOR!
  • GODDAMN IT!

This is Ming-Ming (Dynasty), the noisiest cat we’ve ever had.

She likes big bellies.

Famous Fathers with Cats, # 1:

We were watching Rango here, and my brother just knew I was taking a picture.

My brother, who has no choice but to be with me till Tuesday, suggested I download an ebook reader into my phone, and added Office Suite. So now I can read books (and write books ha!) on my teeny-tiny phone! I WANT AN X7! SHUT THE HELL UP!

Remember our pet chicken?


It gave us an egg! I almost rolled on the floor laughing at my father because he burst through the front door with it. He was that excited.

And now I’m here with Jaykie as he reviews for That Big Exam tomorrow. Prayers? Good vibes? Hope you are all safe and warm, wherever you are.