Category: personal

christmas, in photos

These photos are late, damn!

Research Christmas Party + Editorial Christmas Party + Photobooth session + pictures from home

Photos from Almi, Kate, and Princess.


 

 

 

 

 

With the Managing Editor:

The EIC buried in an avalanche of employees:

Schatzi won something! I didn’t win anything! Almi’s not pleased.

We really fell in love with the (makeshift) photobooth:

I am happy to report that my Free Press trophy reached home okay. (And yes those are cheesy portraits of my parents nyaha.)

Brought home Inquirer shirts for my family. Knife and potato not included.

I spent most of my vacation watching Top Chef and ABDC, haha.

I’m of the mind to actually buy one of these cell phones. So small and cute!

Crema de fruta!

Aaaand photos of my brother swallowing things:

epic picspam

CPK + Chili’s

Suzuki Cup! Philippines versus Indonesia! We couldn’t finish the game at the office, so we went out to catch the latter half of the game, and to ingest food and alcohol.

Notice that Kate couldn’t take her eyes away from the game haha!

Jake, too.

So many near-goals argh.

Anyway, food:

We lost in the end (aw), 1-0.

Oh, well.

A table at Chili’s became available, so out we go.

Kate looking on as Jake does his mental arithmetic:

Chili’s for premium wasakan.

We brought the party to the elevator.

With photos from Almi.

Lantern Parade + Tomato Kick

Jaykie and I went to UP early to avoid heavy traffic. Played Hearts with the HGC boys, had lunch.

At 3 p.m., it rained. We thought the parade would be canceled, but at 4 the skies cleared, and at 4:30 the first floats were wheeled down the Acad Oval.

Jaykie’s waiting.

The crowd waiting at AS.

“Ayan naaaaaaaaaaaa.”

Jaykie was eyeing these toys, so I bought him one.

He loved it.

I also bought one for myself, plus some devil horns, haha.

More scenes from the Parade:

The boys in their album cover poses.

Evil Jaykeh.

Jaykie got interviewed! Don’t know what station, but even before the camera could approach us I was already running away, saying, “I work for a newspaper! I can’t be in the story!”

The campus was in such a festive mood that I didn’t mind the long walk from AS to Bahay ng Alumni, where Jaykie parked his car.

Off to Technohub, where we had Chinese, and where Beej received a call from Tope who said he’s in %&$gggftq Avenue. “Where?”  %&$gggftq Avenue. Either that’s static, or he’s an Elder God.

It was static. /disappointment. Charot.

The 17th was also our fourteenth monthsary. Happy 14th, Jaykie!

With photos from Jme.

Trinoma date + Jaykie’s CD collection

We went to Trinoma for some late Christmas shopping, and a date over pasta and fries.

I wore this new pair of stockings from Schatz. I love the pattern. I should get more of these stockings.

We bought our first conjugal property: a 500-gigabyte portable storage device. Please don’t die too early.

Later that night I raided Jaykie’s CD collection. I’m in love with the album covers (of local bands, especially).

All that drinking and partying did a number on my immune system (I’m coughing like there’s no tomorrow), but I’m still looking forward to my holiday vacation with my family next week.

weekend pictures

Jaykie and I went to UP on Friday, and discovered the Bahay ng Alumni Christmas bazaar (after a scrumptious dinner of fish al forno and fries and Cherry Christmas cake at ROC).

I got costume jewelry, of course.

Jaykie also bought me a copy of McEwan’s Saturday. Thanks, love.

Saturday, I tagged along with Jaykie and friends to Cubao X for dinner at Bellini’s. Pasta, pizza, cake heaven. I loved the complimentary wine, sweet with a bit of fire. I also appreciated the fact that the proprietor shook our hands as we left. I told him I enjoyed their food. Then CBTL for tea/coffee. I didn’t take out my cameraphone, so I’m posting pictures by Jme here.

The boys were trying to figure out how to cut this small cake into nine slices. Naturally I zoned out. Ha!

(Don’t worry, the division was successful.)

Before that, we passed by Sputnik, and I got Carljoe’s and Adam’s books. Finally! (Unfortunately, I still don’t have Elmer.) I went to the Reading Room to buy Leyende, a moisturizer (thanks Lizzy for the tip!), for my awfully itchy dry skin, but they’re all out.

Cubao X has the coolest shops. Wish I could drop by more often.

happy 25th, inquirer! (picspam edition)

Loot bag + free ice cream + dinner + party + raffle prizes (didn’t win any) + comedy bar break + music + wine + beer + tequila shots + Jaykie = great party, Inquirer!

Photos by me, and by Almi, Ruthie, Schatzi. Thanks, girls!

Photobooth with Guyito!

Photo of a photo (notice award-winning photographer Edwin Bacasmas photobombing me):

The Inquirer Read-Along volunteers:

Speaking of the mascot, click here to watch him dance. :) (And here to watch Barbie Almalbis perform.)

Jaykie arrived just in time for comedy hour, haha!

Pretty Trizsa was high-larious!

Juan Pablo Dream takes the stage! Let’s dance!

As for the raffle, I was praying to win the digicam, but alas, it was not for me. I was also praying to win the Boracay trip, but Lawrence won that. Hmf.

We took pictures of ourselves while drinking tequila. Where are those pictures, and am I sure I want to see them?

Oh.

Wasak!

weekend update

(I just started using Picnik, this cool online photo editing app that I first heard from Almi. It’s really cool. Expect better-looking photos here from now on, haha!)

Jaykie and I spent Friday mostly in UP. Jaykie played Magic with the HGC boys while I read a bit of Le Guin’s The Dispossessed. There were several Le Guin books in the book bargain bin inside Antas, but I chose this one because I’ve heard so much about it. Also, I just think it’s a shame I haven’t read Le Guin yet.

I wanted to go to Cubao X to visit Adam David’s indie book expo, or to the UP Bookstore to look through the titles offered for the annual sale, but those plans fell through due to time constraints.

I found it lovely that it got cool by four and dark by five p.m. Very Christmas-y. We went to the tiangge to buy gifts for people and jewelry and books for me! I got Alex Garland’s The Tesseract. Still pricey at P280, but it looks new. I also began reading it, and it’s quite amazing. The setting’s Manila, so I’m quite interested to finish it.

I also bought rings and bracelets. I wanted to buy all of the necklaces, but you know, self-control and all that.

We then had dinner at the Persian place and drove around UP to see the lights. No pictures, because my camera phone sucks and won’t do the sights justice anyway.

Saturday, while Jaykie’s in class, I went off to Megamall to meet with my former Pook Palaris housemates. With the exception of June, who is a batchmate, they were all two batches younger than me, but have all graduated and are now earning more than I’m making haha. They wanted to meet Jaykie; I’ll bring him next time, girls. Pizza Hut plus a bracelet from Rowcee plus Mocha Blends plus laughter. Ang sarap tumawa! I love them all.

Before the meet-up, I visited Forever 21 for the first time. THE COSTUME JEWELRY ARE OVERPRICED. There, I said it. In all-caps. The clothes overwhelmed me, so I ended up buying just a pair of shades, which for some reason reminded me of Betty from Mad Men, heh.

Hola, 60’s!

Maybe I’ll go back to F21. Buy a skirt or something.

* * *

Congrats to the Inquirer Read-Along team for a successful event! Twenty-five simultaneous read-alongs, from Batanes to Tawi-Tawi! Huzzah!

the night i won at the philippines free press literary awards, and other stories

I’m still lacking sleep (and I’m still high from last night’s events haha) so forgive me if this turns out to be an incoherent post.

Summary: “Reunion” won first place at the Philippines Free Press Literary Awards, and our group (Editorial A) won first place in the company group presentation contest. So: in the early evening I wore a dress, hyperventilated as I accepted my trophy (I have a trophy! From Free Press! With my name and story title on it!), and later that night I donned a cheerleader outfit for “Pyramid” and a feathery hat for “Bad Romance”. There’s a story there, don’t worry. I don’t have pictures of the performance itself, but I’ll shamelessly (yes!) share them when I get them heh. And I have pictures!

I. Philippines Free Press Literary Awards/Zobel Dining/Makati Sports Club/6 pm

Went half-day at work and camwhored a bit as I prepared:

I love my earrings!

I also received the check from Basement Stories for “Incidental Light”, with a lovely note from Carol Kirkman. Thanks!

Jaykie and I arrived a little before 6 p.m. The dining hall was still quite empty. So we had white wine and took pictures.

The spec fic gang is here! Lookie candid shots.

Dean Alfar, Nikki Alfar, Kate Aton-Osias. (In the background: Andrew Drilon having a chat with Monique Francisco, who was also in PSF IV and also a finalist for the Short Story category that night.)

Alex Osias and Vincent Simbulan.

I also finally met Sasha Martinez (very bubbly and bakla – I like!) in person (we have no picture, boo). She was also a finalist for the same category. (She won last year for “The Catherine Theory”.)

The first category announced was Short Story. Nikki Alfar read the citations and the names of the winners. Third place went to Daryll Delgado for “In Remission”. Second place went to Mo for “Jimmie”. I looked at the list of finalists again and saw Amadis Ma. Guerrero’s name. Ha! I have no chance.

And then Nikki said and the first place goes to “Reunion” by Eliza Victoria, and I think I went slightly crazy. Looking back, I think there were signs: Ms Susan Locsin approaching me saying she’s glad I’m a finalist “but I really don’t know who the winners are”, Sarge Lacuesta putting exclamation points in his replies to me in the email (“You have to come!!”), and Dean Alfar giving stage directions, apparently to help me haha. Unfortunately I broke all of his rules, including the simplest “stay in the middle and bask in your glory until the judge says, ‘Thank you'”.

Here’s the citation:

For its ambitious narrative that reunites the fate of two brothers across the centuries and historic milestones, for showing that the creative imagination cannot be restrained by the boundaries of geography and time, for proving that the best attributes of humanity shine even in the darkest of historical periods, and for declaring without conceit that in the end, humanity is its own best excuse for being, the Philippines Free Press Grand Prize for Short Fiction is awarded to REUNION by Eliza Victoria.

The Eliza Sandwich! (tm, Dean Alfar)

The poetry awards went to Marjorie Evasco and Noelle Leslie Dela Cruz (there was no 3rd prize winner). Congrats!

Thanks to everyone who approached me that night and congratulated me. And to everyone who has congratulated me in person or online since then. You are all dears. And yes, I will continue to write. (Before we left, Ms Locsin said, “Don’t stop writing!” Oh, I won’t dare. :D ) The photo below’s from Mo. :)

II. Philippine Daily Inquirer/Rizal Ballroom/Makati Shangri-La/8 pm

It’s the 25th anniversary of the paper! I missed the President though. Oh well.

We’re sitting at the advertisers’ table. Hehe.

Jon Santos and Wille Nep were there, as the presidents and other personalities. :)

Research team!

More photos!

The InCHOIRer.

Photobooth!

So we did that *dance number or something*

(“Vhong” and “Anne”.)

(“Charice” and back-up dancers, followed by “Kris” and “Josh”.)

(“Lady Gaga” with back-up dancers.)

and we won the grand prize!

Photos from Ruthie, Princess, Cyril, Irene, and Almi. :D

There’s definitely more pictures from the event floating around, but that’s all for now!

tally, some musings

Inspired by Aliette de Bodard’s post about shameless self-promotion for the Nebula Awards! Ha! I’m no Aliette, and I don’t think any SFWA member will take the time to ~nominate me, but it’s always fun to do a tally.

For 2010 I have published seven short stories.

  • “Sand, Crushed Shells, Chicken Feathers”, Philippines Free Press, March 22, 2010.
  • “Salot“, Demons of the New Year, March 24, 2010.
  • “Once They Were Gods“, Expanded Horizons, April 1, 2010.
  • “Monsters”, Philippine Speculative Fiction V, April 24, 2010.
  • “Brothers”, Cantaraville (Issue Ten), April 2010.
  • “Jeremy’s Magic Well”, Gig and the Amazing Sampaguita Foundation, Inc. July 2010. Illustrated by Ray Nazarene Sunga.
  • “Elsewhere”, Usok #2, November 3, 2010.

The Nebula Rules say, “All works first published in English, in the United States, during the calendar year, in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, or a related fiction genre are eligible for the Nebula Awards® in their respective categories.” And “Works first published in English on the Internet or in electronic form during the calendar year shall be treated as though published in the United States.”

That means my eligible stories are “Salot” (horror/fantasy), “Once They Were Gods” (fantasy), and “Elsewhere” (science fiction).

I have two reprints this year:

  • “Incidental Light”, Philippines Free Press, January 3, 2009. (Reprinted by Basement Stories, October 2010. link.)
  • “Parallel”, Philippine Speculative Fiction IV, February 28, 2009. (Reprinted by Expanded Horizons, November 3, 2010. link.)

Not sure if the Nebula accepts nominations of reprints, but anyway both are eligible. “Incidental Light” is a fantasy, while “Parallel” is sci-fi.

So far, I have published eight poems.

Also, a bunch of essays and reviews. Quite a good year.

I started a novel, but quickly gave it up because it felt like a short story being stretched to its limits. I’ll stick with the short story form, thank you very much.

This is also the reason why I never joined the NaNo. Ever. :p

Last night I began writing notes for a new story. I still have no idea when I’m going to start writing it. Lazy, lazy bee.

With special guests: High Chair poetry books, PGS, Tobias Wolff, bright bed sheet, and electric fan haha.

Re-reading these babies. Mmm poems.

Got these from Jaykie’s sisters from Boracay! :D

I bought a pair of gloves. Doing the laundry sometimes wounds my fingers. Domestic wounds, woe.

Jaykie’s better, and for that, I am thankful.