Yup. Still Alive.

I have been remiss in updating this place. But I haven't been really away, because if you looked hard enough, you'd notice that I have two new static pages above! *points*

• Seen/Written is my humble, short collective of written work, posted in some shape or form online - Seen for photography, Written for prose. 
• Books is my growing list of books that I'm open to lend out (to close friends, initially). I was supposed to put up a book club with this person here (AND I HAVE BEEN REMISS ON THAT AS WELL, I AM SO SORRY) but stuff happened that made us unable to do it. Anyway, in an effort to get something started, I've put up my own list of books for loan. This list is still a work in progress; I'm sure I haven't included everything that I have at home.

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So, what has been happening the past few weeks?

• I've been meeting a lot of new people (if I've met you the past two weeks or so and you're reading this, hi!)
• I'm getting required book readings again, and I'm so delayed with finishing them. Required book readings, by the way, aren't the same with wala lang book readings (Read: stuff I want to read)
• I co-composed and arranged a song (emphasis on co- because there's no way I can do it from the ground up). We have this ongoing workshop-slash-book report thing for Music that required us to make a song. I got the recordings of all the songs through email this week, and yeah...hearing my own voice is sooooo awkward *goosebumps* 
• I got paid to do graphic design work in exchange for books (best payment I ever received aside from cash [duh]).
• I ventured once more into snail mail! I called this Operation Liham. The details of the letter can be found on that link. I can't even remember the last time I sent snail mail. It was probably even before 2000. YEGADS

In class, I'm starting to see my most favorite line of Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged in an entirely new light. (Read: SCREW THE RULES.) I'm also seeing a very significant shift in my responsibilities at work, and once again, I find myself hardly prepared.

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This Wednesday, when I went to midweek, I was told by two people that they really like the way I sing this particular song. I am really floored when people say nice things about what I do, whether it's with singing or with work, because more often than not, I am harder on myself than most people are.

But, what I find really funny is that there were other people who told me the same thing for the same song. At first, I was thinking, "Teka, nag-usap ba kayo?" Hahahahaha! But, it seemed highly unlikely because the interval between this Wednesday and the last time I got a similar compliment was more than a year. So...yeah, I don't think nag-usap sila. XD

I guess it's because [1] I love the song; [2] I absolutely LOVE Brooke Fraser (read: girl crush); and [3] there are many ways to sing a song, but very few ways to sing it right. I consider #3 to be the most important, because you can have less of #1 and absolutely none of #2, and still do justice to a song - as long as you sing it right.

Truth be told, I remember messing up Hosanna so many times to the point of not wanting to sing that song in public again, so to hear these things out of the blue is so uplifting.

I must be doing something right. It may not be as bad as I think it is. (Applying the temperaments, the melancholic in me has to seriously chill. XD)

And on this note, gusto ko na uli magkaroon ng raket! Nakakapagod din ang work-school-church lagi! Wala bang mga ikakasal diyan? (Bwahahaha tama ba ito? XDDD)

Celebrating freedom, #RP612fic style

For the first time, I celebrated Independence Day by participating in #RP612fic! At first, I thought it was going to be hard, but once I got my first tweet down, everything else fell into place like clockwork (thank you EK for giving me that much needed pep talk. =D).

You can go through my Twitter feed to see all of them (they've all been conveniently hashtagged with #RP612fic). Alternately, I've also compiled everything I've done from close to midnight until tonight through Storify, which you can view here.

I'm so happy that some of the stuff I posted got retweets from respected Twitter accounts (i.e. the halo-halo fic and that one bit about Quiapo Church - both of which have references to Avengers). It let out my inner fangirl, and it was understood. I was trying to make references to other fandoms, like Dragonball or RuroKen, but I couldn't churn out anything I'd want to publish. /sigh 

There will always be next year. I'm definitely going to be part of it again.

Some sites are starting to compile the microfics. I'll be posting below where some of the stuff I've tweeted were included (and I give also my humblest of floorbows to them):

• Katipunan Magazine (The Lasallian in me is delighted with this =D)

Questions

I just came home from watching Prometheus. More than it being a Ridley Scott movie, and even more than Michael Fassbender being one of the main actors, it was a movie that I didn't want to miss because it was supposedly made as a prequel to Alien. I absolutely love sci-fi movies. 

Having said all of that, I totally recommend this film! The effects were mind-blowing, and the acting was way above par. My only misgiving for Prometheus was that it didn't give any answers to its most compelling questions by the time the movie ended. This is also not a feel-good movie (so if you don't want to feel depressed, DON'T WATCH THIS MOVIE!). 

If I could sum up this movie in one sentence, it will be in the form of a question: How far would you go to get the answers to your questions? Maybe not all questions were made to be answered, and we'll simply have to live with that. But when you flip this argument around, and say that we deserve answers to the questions we deem important, then how far will we go to get them? At what point can we say that the search for answers has become meaningless, or has brought  contentment? This was Prometheus for me. 

Fassy was phenomenal in this movie. I don't want to spoil anything...but really...he is just BEYOND! (And I can't even end this sentence properly!)

Dissolved | Mixing and matching

This Monday, I got the biggest scare of my grad school life. My Copywriting class was dissolved.

DISSOLVED. This was unheard of during my undergrad (you pretty much should expect a full class almost all the time with the sheer size of CBE), and so when it was announced. I thought, "Now what the heck am I supposed to do now? MY MISCELLANEOUS FEES ARE JUST AS HIGH AS THREE UNITS OF LOAD, AND NOW I AM DEPRIVED OF ONE SUBJECT?!"

There was a lot of drama that involved going to the Department, the Registrar's Office, and the Library (trip to the latter wasn't related to requesting for a special class, but simply to return the equipment I borrowed, which should have been used if weren't for the announcement). I don't know if I was high on something, but when I came home I didn't eat even if I was hungry, and it took me a long time to get to sleep, and I woke up before 4AM, which was waaaaay too early. 

To cut the story short, today I got an email that the class has been made regular again. /sigh  But seriously, I cannot endure again the drama of a dissolved class. Ayoko na.

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Okay. Hot topic on the Internet this week - the Bayo ad. How quickly did we move on from the Coronanovela, people? XD Anyway, I digress.

I don't find the add offensive. I just think it is poorly worded. I am 100% Filipino, but if you've seen me, I can easily pass for another Asian race: Chinese (I get this all the time), Korean (which intensifies when I am beside one, or heavens, if I sing a K-pop song), and surprisingly, Japanese (now this I find kind of odd, cause I fangirl Japanese people, and I don't look like them at all. But when I dress like one, let's just say that it's a story for another time. XD). I'm pretty sure I could also pass for Malaysian.

I bring this up because of this: How do you define what the "Filipino" race is, to begin with? As early as Grade 1, we were taught that our race primarily sprung from the Ita, Indones, and Malay. They were immigrants, and not indigenous to the land. Add to that the 333 years of Spanish colonization, which resulted into the mestizos and mestizas. Oh, and let us not forget the chinitas and chinitos as well, cause the Chinese thrived during the colonial period as well. 

What's my point? I think that the Filipino race has ALWAYS been mixed from the very beginning. Yes, there are some theories that there were indigenous people prior to the arrival of the I, I, and M - but it's simply theory. The point is, we have been mixed and matched from the start pa lang. Almost everyone has claim to Spanish blood (I have, for one. No verified claim for Chinese - yet!) that it's hardly anything special - unless, of course, you are almost pure-bred mestizo. 

Anyway, this isn't really a big deal (for me). If I have to break down my mix, I'll have to say I'm 57% water, 20% Lasallian, 10% mad, and 3% Trekkie. 

I laugh at mixing and matching. I do what I want. 

*sigh* Randomness (I'm really sorry, I cannot think of a better title)

...but I can guarantee that this isn't the what-is-this-I-don't-even kind of randomness.

Words must be said in favor of The Red Necklace, which I finally finished last week. A book like that (a very easy read, with a large font size) would have usually taken me less than a week. I have no less than the audiobook to thank blame for my sluggish pace. Like, for real...I had to pause and contemplate on my fragile existence wonder how could all of those characters with varying accents and voice timbres could have been voiced by A SINGLE MAN. Dangit, Tom Hiddleston. In my mind, I have inducted you into my hall of fame, which is pretty much the list I keep in my head of people whom I wish I were related to by blood. Hahahaha! Can I call you Kuya? Please? XD I can be a nice sibling. You can ask my brothers.

Anyway, it was historical fiction-slash-fantasy - two categories of fiction that are very well within home base, so it was a very fun read. I think if someone would have recommended it - SANS existence of audiobook -  I would have picked it up as well.

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I went to Fully Booked GB5 last Thursday, and while looking for my next book, I saw this copy of Genji Monogatari.

LOOK AT THAT. LOOK AT HOW THIN THAT IS. I've said this on Tumblr, and I'll say it again - the sheer thinness (or lack of pages!) of this version slightly offends me. I had to endure more than a THOUSAND PAGES over the course of nearly a whole year with the deluxe version, and suddenly this comes out! OH COME ON.

Then again, I don't know how this version can wholly capture the poetry that's in the deluxe version - and the poetry occupies like...30-40% of the book. So...yeah. I think I got the better end of the deal with owning the deluxe version. I just wish that it was a more easy read though. /sigh

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Next book to finish is Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre. =)  

I don't really know what to expect from this. First off, it's not my home genre for fiction, and I'm only at Chapter 4 (no time to read, le sigh). But I wanted to veer away from my comfort zone this month, hence this.

I was actually deciding between this and a deluxe edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula. I chose this book because it was cheaper. WORKING STUDENT PROBLEMS. /sigh

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Last na ito!  Today, I wore this awesome flower/feather headpiece made by Kristal. She went back to Canada this weekend, so I wore what she made for me just so I could feel that she’s with us still. =) True enough, it worked - a lot of people were asking me, “That was made by Kristal, right?” 
 Kristal, if ever you do read this, you are seriously missed =) I’m not sure if she could ship to the Philippines, but you could check out her work here.