It’s the second day of the new year and I’m scrambling to get some work done. So? How have you all been? Wait, let me just share with you these links before I dash:
Thursday Never Looking Back, an anthology about the world’s end, is now available on Amazon. Buy a copy! It has three of my poems, and great work from local authors.
Authors talk to the Manila Bulletin about what books to give as gifts. It’s never too late to go book-shopping. Read about our answers here.
Jerald Uy on Rappler listsA Bottle of Storm Clouds as one of several Pinoy book you can give to your loved ones.
My poems – “Ten Truths”, “Somebody tell the river”, and “Elegy for the lost minutes” – will appear in an upcoming issue of UK-based literary magazine, NEON. Many thanks to editor Krishan Coupland. http://www.neonmagazine.co.uk/
For those who can’t find A Bottle of Storm Clouds in the bookstores, you can order a copy online via Lazada. It’s available for nationwide delivery.
Meann Ortiz on GMA News Online recommendsLower Myths and other books.
For more information about my published works, please visit this page.
Back home, found these babies, old issues of Asimov’s SF.
And here’s J, channeling Bruce Lee in Bulacan.
More blather about 2012 to follow. But I’m grateful, grateful, grateful. Happy New Year, everybody! :)
It’s the end of the world and we’re still here, so I’m going to Bulacan for Christmas. Maybe The Hobbit tonight, maybe another poem tomorrow.
I might be offline until Tuesday night, but first, here are last night’s office shenanigans at the Hard Rock Cafe, starring the Mocha Girls.
Got Revlon Colorburst in Sugar Plum at the office exchange gift! It’s a great shade. Here be my big face:
Before I let you go, a couple of things:
I now have the first edition of Thursday Never Looking Back, in EPUB and MOBI. Thank you, Adam David! Want a copy of the e-antho? Join the contest + read the introduction.
I’ve talked about Human Nature here before, but now I’m of the mind to start the switch to this beauty line and completely commit to HN, at least for hair and facial care. Why not? The products are affordable, locally made, effective, and kind to the environment. It doesn’t work for everyone, however; you need only look at the reviews on their site. For every ten giddy good reviews, there’s bound to be one who will say that the shampoo makes her scalp itch, or the lip balms do nothing at all to her chapped lips. But if it works for you, why not stick with it? I’ve always been wary of products with strong scents – even my nose can tell they have harsh chemicals that pollute our waters after I rinse them off. Just take our everyday shampoo:
Did you know: Enjoying that foamy lather you get from chemical shampoos? It’s usually from chemical surfactants such as sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulfate (SLES). Sure, the lather feels nice but do you ever wonder what happens to all that foam after you rinse it off? It goes back into our rivers and oceans, where it is very toxic to the ecosystem.
In addition, SLS/SLES has been reported by the Environmental Working Group(www.ewg.org) as a moderate hazard to human health. It’s been linked to skin irritation, cancer and organ toxicity. (Source.)
Buying organic is a small step to something good, I think.
So I’ve tried the shampoo and conditioner in Lush Vanilla as well as the Natural Lip Balm and Mineral Blush, and loved them. Here are other products I liked:
Natural Intensive Hair Mask (Rosemary) – Best. Thing. Ever. Has gugo bark, coconut, and avocado. Makes my scalp all tingly and leaves my hair soft and manageable. Amazing product. I’d probably still go to the salon to straighten my hair, but for everything else (hot oil/relax/etc), I’ll just pile this on.
Purifying Facial Scrub – Has real strawberry seeds! This doesn’t foam (which surprised me at first) but it cleans thoroughly and has lessened my blackheads.
Tinted Lip Balm (Island Kiss) – This has peppermint, so leaves my lips with an icy, tingly feel. Perfect for the beach and hot days outdoors. I find that the Natural Lip Balm hydrates more, though.
Sunflower Seed Beauty Oil – Has no other ingredient but high-grade sunflower oil. Has multiple uses:
Our premium and best-selling Sunflower Beauty Oil is 100% Natural and packed with vitamins A, D & E that help moisturize and nourish your skin to give it that healthy glow —without any harmful chemicals. It’s so effective and so versatile, the uses are endless! What kind of miracles, you ask? Well for starters it…
1. Softens and lightens underarms
2. Lightens dark under eye circles
3. Lightens darks spots and pimple marks
4. Under eye moisturizer
5. Prevents and diminishes the appearance of stretch marks
6. Softens feet soles, knees and elbows
7. Removes stubborn makeup
8. Overall body moisturizer
9. Moisturizes dry hair ends
10. Softens the cuticles
11. De-frizzes hair
12. Adds shine to dull hair
13. Relieves itching and inflammation caused by insect bites
14. Nourishes and conditions eyelashes
15. Lightens dark lips
16. Soothes skin after shaving
17. Relieves itchy scalp
18. Soothes skin damaged by sunburn
19. Smoothens skin from shaving
20. Helps soothe rashes
21. Helps heal skin infections
22. Hydrates dry patches
I use this on my eye bags, elbows, and knees, but I should try putting some on my cracked soles.
Bug Shield Lotion – Haven’t used this but heard this is very effective.
If you’re buying their products, take note of the expiration date. Since these products contain natural ingredients, they usually expire a year after purchase.
Some people I know celebrate their birthdays for a week, even a whole month. I just eat a lot at home on the day, and then it’s business as usual.
This weekend, though, felt like an extra helping of blessings for my new year.
Friday, the completely unexpected GeekFight win
I’ve heard of GeekFight, and I have friends who have joined GeekFight, but I have doubts about my geek trivia skills. I know some things, but just basic info, certainly not the esoteric ones that get asked in hardcore trivia shows like this.
J found out that the Committee GeekFight for Nov. 9 is themed “Power of Myth” – Philippine myths, Greco-Roman and Norse myths, religions ancient and current – and he seemed to have great faith in my knowledge, which of course made me more nervous. I almost backed out the night before, thinking of the hassle of driving to Quantum Cafe and finding parking on a Friday night and losing.
Well, I’m glad we went because we won.
The Modron Squadron!
We won! On our first game! It’s hilarious how our attitude changed from “It’s okay we’ll just wing it let’s just drink beer and have fun” to “MOTHERFUCKER WE HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN THIS SHIT COVER THE FUCKING WHITEBOARD”.
In the D&D universe, “Modrons resemble geometric shapes with humanoid limbs and represent a living, physical manifestation of law without regard to good or evil.” (Wiki)
Twelve teams fought in “Power of Myth”.
A highlight from the event:
Q: How is the monster from Cloverfield classified by the DOD?
Someone answers: Isa syang class-S na halimaw.
Crowd: “TAPUSIN! TAPUSIN! TAPUSIN!”
Needless to say, I had a fun Friday night.
*
Before the game, we tried Quantum Cafe’s food. These are really good:
Full Shroom, pizza on whole wheat (PhP 190)Kare-kareng gulay! (PhP 220)The kare-kare comes with sinantolan instead of the usual bagoong, but it’s a fun alternative.
I’d like to return to Quantum Cafe just to try the other dishes.
Bwakaw features a heartbreaking performance by Eddie Garcia as the aging homosexual, Rene. It is a beautiful, sweet, affecting story told with grace and control. It has the elements that can very easily allow it to lapse into a cloying melodrama – a dying dog, a lonely old man – but it never does. Instead it finds brightness in a sad life, and inserts humor in the most absurd situations. (How incredibly funny is it to see Gardo Verzosa constantly fanning himself?) And something must be said about the amazing cinematography: J said the film is so immersive that he half-expected to find himself in San Pablo after stepping out of the Film Institute. I agree. The people I saw the film with had this look in their eyes after the show, like they had just been clobbered over the head. Maybe they were expecting the same thing, the San Pablo of Bwakaw: wind-swept trees, unpaved roads, an old man with a dog in his arms riding a tricycle home.
I loved the final image of the film: Rene walking up a path and disappearing into the trees. We are not told where he is going, but at least now we are sure he is going somewhere.
Am I glad I got the chance to see this film on the big screen.
*
After lunch at Chocolate Kiss, we headed to the Christmas bazaar. I got these beauties:
Bracelet (PhP 70), ring (PhP 100), peacock-cock-cock earrings (PhP 100)
While in UP, J kept hiding his cell phone screen from me while texting. I wondered about that. He usually even lets me read his texts.
We got to their house, and found out why:
Surprise!
J was with me in Bulacan, and noticed the conspicuous absence of cake during my birthday. So he asked the family to buy me a cake, and more besides.
My thanks to J, J’s ma, his Tita Jo, and the rest of the family for the surprise dinner party!
Sunday, something new for my nails
I regularly have nail polish applied to my toenails, but not to my nails, because I’m a klutz and I chip them easily, sometimes even as soon as I step out of the salon.
So I tried UV soak-off gel nail polish, which the advertisements (and my friendly neighborhood salon) promise will last for two weeks. Mani-pedi using UV gel nail polish is more expensive than using acrylic nail polish. Mine cost PhP 550 at B&W Beauty Salon.
It’s more expensive in the bigger salons, I’m sure. (Some salons, I heard, offer the service for PhP 500 just for the manicure.) That’s a con, but the pros are 1) the polish will last longer, and 2) it dries instantly. No need to ask someone else to open your can of soda after meeting with your manikurista.
I didn’t take pictures of the procedure, but the UV machine looks like this:
I planned to go on a jog, but my room was bothering me, so I hunkered down and cleaned my floor and bundled up the shoes and clothes that I no longer use (or, in the case of clothes, those that sadly no longer fit). I filled two large garbage bags, and my closet was finally able to breathe. The shoes that remained I removed from the shoe boxes to save space. I hate how every space I inhabit feels so small and temporary – maybe because they are. I still can’t bring myself to buy items purely for decoration. I have to be practical. I have to be able to fit all of my essentials in one traveling bag. I just know that one day I will be packing up again to a new place.
I would love to live someplace spacious and permanent. Where I can hang a picture on the wall, buy a vase to put flowers in. Sit down with J, have dinner we actually cooked. Settling down, now there’s a phrase. Not marriage, just a place to stay. The opposite of wanderlust. I guess it bites you once you get over your first quarter century.
Guyito to watch over me.Early morning. View outside the window.
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In other news, RoomMagazine‘s Labours issue (35.4) is coming out soon with my poem, “Hospital Work”. Can’t wait to get my two compli copies! Lorrie Miller sent a teaser in the mail:
As the final issue of our anniversary volume, we are launching issue 35.4, Labours at the Roundhouse Community Centre on Sunday, December 9 at 2:30pm, she writes.
If you’re in Canada, do come and enjoy the poems. The issue will be on newsstands in two to three weeks.
In Jeremy’s Magic Well, Jeremy’s father is mostly away, working as a cook on a foreign ship. Thanks to a magic well, Jeremy is able to see and talk to him. Following his father’s advice, he overcomes his fear of David, a schoolmate bully, and discovers that the two of them have something in common.
So to speak! That was a relaxing 4-day stay in humid Bulacan, which would have been more relaxing if it wasn’t so humid. Gluttony! I don’t have any pictures from the birthday weekend, but if I had, it would have been nothing but pictures of food.
This is a visual feast, from the green lands of Scotland to Merida’s luscious red hair. But to quote Roger Ebert, “‘The good news is that the kids will probably love it, and the bad news is that parents will be disappointed if they’re hoping for another Pixar groundbreaker. Unlike such brightly original films as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, WALL-E and Up, this one finds Pixar poaching on traditional territory of Disney, its corporate partner. We get a spunky princess; her mum, the queen; her dad, the gruff king, an old witch who lives in the woods, and so on.”
That’s about it. The film is important for being the first Pixar film with a female protagonist, and not just any female protagonist – Merida is a princess who is not a damsel in distress. She can be an empowering role model for little girls who have seen this film, but the film itself pales in comparison to other Pixar tales. I just think they could have done more with the characters.
The Fourth Kind– The film opens with Milla Jovovich walking toward the camera and saying, “My name is Milla Jovovich, and I will be playing blah blah blah.” The film, which deals with alien abduction (known as the fourth kind, in the scale of alien encounters) is disturbing enough, but the filmmakers try too hard to make us believe that what we’re seeing is actual footage. Please.
Plus something from IMDB: The real Nome is 51% native Alaskan, but there are no indigenous characters in the film (at least none stated to be).
Now that just makes me angry.
Man On A Ledge – Has an unbelievable premise, but sure, it’s a fun watch.
The Thing (1982) – It’s an alien monster story with an actual formidable monster. (Shame on Cloverfield.) The characters’ paranoia spills out of every snow-covered scene. Very well done.
Star Wars IV, V, and VI (Remastered versions)
You and I have heard all the spoilers and have seen all the memes – “Luke, I am your father” (though in the film Darth Vader only actually says “I am your father”), Yoda, Chewie, Han Solo in carbonite, “You are my only hope” from Princess Leia, R2-D2 and C-3PO, and the Ewoks that take down an empire – but this was the first time I saw the original trilogy. I know! Took me long enough. Years ago I saw Episode IV but might have been too young to appreciate the story. I tried seeing Episode V last year I think, but got confused and got incredibly drunk (no connection to one another).
I love it. The franchise deserves it’s crazy fandom. Princess Leia is badass. Episodes IV and V are really good, but I think Episode VI is a misstep. Ewoks? Really? Here’s the two films building up the rebellion (and Ep. V seems to be a promise of greater things to come) and then – ewoks? Is George Lucas a furry?
But my criticism comes decades too late.
Also, I saw the remastered versions (thanks to J), so when the Jedi ghosts appeared to Luke Skywalker in the last scene, I was greeted by the visage of Hayden Christensen! I thought I was hallucinating.
Eliza Victoria 