new hair!

Here’s the thing: I have neither the patience nor the time to blow-dry my hair, so yeah, it doesn’t look like that anymore. The wavy locks came back with a vengeance. Meh. I’ll stick with the 50’s pin-up girl look. Maybe I should buy some red lipstick.

UPDATE: And yes, faithful friends and readers, I know the photos are too dark and worth shit. I used my laptop cam, sorry!

Now: Why don’t we all just shut up and call it art.

“in their hour of absolute terror”

It is not just that I am a journalist and my daughter is a journalist and it takes very little imagination to put yourself in the shoes of the victims, particularly in their hour of absolute terror, when they realized that nothing, not their names, not their organizations, not their God, whoever or whatever (s)he is, could stay the hand of their executioners.

- Conrado de Quiros, “Human and right“

If the mass killings are absorbed in the alleged crime of rebellion (as they are in the report); and if there is in fact no rebellion, but only armed, disgruntled supporters, what happens when the rebellion charges are thrown out by the courts? We shudder to think that martial law will allow the perpetrators to walk free.

- “Proof of murder“, Philippine Daily Inquirer editorial

Never again would voice or pen be silenced or stilled by dictatorship. Never again would democracy be relinquished due to pied pipers trying to seduce the country into willingly relinquishing its hard-won freedoms. Never again would our vigilance relax, our insistence on accountability be thwarted, or our commitment to democracy waver.

-“Never again“, Philippine Daily Inquirer Editorial

Martial law is still in effect in Maguindanao. Congress is holding a joint session to debate the proclamation’s merits; the President, the commander-in-chief, the woman with the bright, bright idea of giving the power to the military down south, does not even grace this “historic event” with her presence.

Cory Aquino must be turning in her grave.

I spit on this administration’s lack of respect for its constituents, its history, and the laws of this country.

I spit on this administration’s supporters in Congress.

This administration has nothing but contempt for its people. Is it too much to ask for a government that actually cares?

To be angry is awful, but to be angry is a good thing. What we don’t want to be, is to be indifferent.

Never again. Siya nawa, siya nawa.

inquirer, 24

So many micro-minis my sexuality got confused. (Ehem.)

Left my decent-er camera back home, so nothing here folks but shitty 3.2 megapixel cell phone photos. Ngar. I did put my name in the glass bowl marked “Samsung 12.1 MP digital camera” during the Pick-A-Prize raffle (Pick a prize!) but of course I didn’t win. (Pick a prize!)

Hmpft.

Thanks to Jake for coming over. To quote Kate, Ang malas sa raffle, swerte sa –

Charot. ♥

More pictures here.

this is huge i think

Back in October I sent an entry to the Pinoy Story Writing Contest, backed by the National Book Development Board (NBDB) and the Filipinas Heritage Library (FHL).

I remember pestering a friend about which MRT station I should get off on to get to the NBDB building (“Eto ‘yung pink na building di ba? Sa may Q Ave?“). In the end I decided I was too lazy to walk and just sent the entire thing via courier. A little more than a hundred pages, this tome called Lower Myths: Two Stories. I wished it luck and bid it adieu.

Near the end of November I heard that an awarding had been held in Greenbelt. Strangely enough, the NBDB website still didn’t carry the complete list of winners.

I looked at my manuscript (soft copy) again and wondered, So okay. You didn’t win. What the fuck am I going to do with you now?

* * *

Yesterday I received a text from Ms Dianne of NBDB, saying I should call the NBDB office.

Apparently I won.

Horror/Crime, Suspense category.

WHAT.

* * *

I’ve contacted Ms Anne of FHL. Let’s see what happens next. Publication? I don’t know.

Howee. ♥

may ilaw na!

Ohai sparkles!

I think that cauldron-like thingy is supposed to symbolize knowledge (or something), but it just looks sinister. Ergo, cool.

(This, on the other hand, is sinister and not cool.)

Friday was dinner and then Quezon Hall to view the lights, Saturday was dinner and a short visit to Sarah’s. There was a man there at another table; I was pretty sure he was a writer and that I saw him at the Palanca Awards, but fuck me if I can remember. I’m so bad with names. (I can’t even recall the names of the people we were drinking with.) (Oh, I remember Bai – did I spell that right? – and Melai – did I spell that right?) (Melai worked in the media too and knew my Journ friends at GMA so that’s cool.)

Somewhere between Friday and Saturday was a marathon of True Blood and Sex and the City and a quiet break with The Beauty Myth and Holidays on Ice and a gazillion notes on three stories (one in-progress) and a poem. So, so, so many notes. Now if I can only string them fragments together.

BUT I’ve heard that Jaykie’s sister left a bag of chocolates with my name on it, because you know if you like it then you should definitely put your name on it, so life is good. Thank you.

rosemary’s baby

The genius of Ira Levin’s fiction is that his prose is so lucid, so simple and straightforward and true, that you can never imagine anything evil happening to any of his (read: ordinary) characters.

And then halfway through you’ll get slapped by a line like, Rosemary found herself chewing on a raw and dripping chicken heart in the kitchen one morning at four-fifteen.

Like I said, genius.

Photo from fantasticfiction.co.uk

a game of thrones

Photo from belfasttelegraph.co.uk

There is always magic in the worlds of epic fantasies, but in the world of the Starks and the Lannisters and whatever is left of the broken House of the Targaryens, magic brings with it a sense of doom, and the smell of spilled blood. The dragons have fallen, the king has turned into a fat drunk who likes hunting more than figuring out how to save a kingdom deep in debt, and the gods are mere silent faces carved in the bark of trees. You can pray to them, but they do not answer.

This world, like most magical worlds, has a forest, but the forest is kept behind a Wall like the wild creature that it is. The phrase “to take up the black” means to be one of the men who guards the Wall. These men do not take wives nor sire children. The punishment for desertion is death. Not surprisingly they’re having serious budget and manpower problems.

All of the Houses have honor, and follies; all of the Houses have pain. They’ve all fought in a war where they’ve lost parents and siblings and children. Every House yearns for revenge, yet every House has also sinned.

In A Game of Thrones, the summer has lasted for years, and now everyone is fearing the bitter cold. The longer the summer, the longer the winter, they say.

The Stark words are, Winter is coming. To paraphrase: We are all going to be seriously fucked.

Oh, yes. And soon.

in bruges, and elsewhere

In Bruges – After a hit gone horribly wrong, two hired assassins – one experienced, one much too young – are sent to Bruges. Ray, the new guy, is not too pleased. “Ken,” he says, “I grew up in Dublin. I love Dublin. If I grew up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me but I didn’t, so it doesn’t.”

I cannot think of a more delightful, more heartrending film. Colin Farrell should make more movies like this.

Also, Bruges looks lovely.

Punch-Drunk Love – Oh, you all know those Adam Sandler comedy films. Sweet, soft-spoken guy, then he goes all crazy on your ass. Barry Egan is like that, but his violence breaks your heart. He has seven sisters, people are on his case all the time, and there’s always this incessant fucking drum in the background. Barry just wants to have someone in his life to slow things down. Is that too much to ask?

Tres Dias (Before the Fall, Spanish) – Ten minutes into the film, we hear that a meteorite five times the size of the rock that fell to earth during the time of the dinosaurs will hit the planet soon. No one will survive. Now what? Do you confess your love to another person? Do you begin killing people and hanging children from trees? Do you eat ice cream? Closure comes in so many forms.

horrific developments

- Early this month, the Comelec denied Ang Ladlad’s petition to run as a party-list group in the May 2010 elections. Ang Ladlad aims to defend and protect the rights of Filipino homosexuals. The Comelec thinks its members are immoral:

The Comelec Second Division—composed of Ferrer and his fellow commissioners Lucenito Tagle and Elias Yusoph—last week rejected Ang Ladlad’s petition to be allowed to run as a party-list group in the May elections.

The division said the group’s espousal of same sex relations violated the Civil Code and Revised Penal Code’s provisions against immoral doctrines and those on decency and good customs.

Wow. The Comelec’s logic just made my brain walk out and hang itself.

And of course people are furious. One brought up a wonderful point: “Gay citizens pay their taxes too.”

Okay, Comelec and the other members of this vile, prejudiced society: Since you don’t want gay people to marry, adopt kids, or to exist, even, what if – and this just an idea – what if we stop collecting taxes from them?

Hm? What do you think? Imagine. Boy Abunda, for example, has a wonderful career, lives with his partner and is unbelievably happy, and above all probably pays the government hundreds of thousands of pesos worth of taxes - but he’s gay. Ugh. Ohnoes. And you don’t like gay people right? I mean, you see them as second-class citizens right? I say give him back his money.

Just an idea.

- Maguindanao Massacre. As of press time, 46 bodies. I attended a public high school, and I remember there were 46 of us in one class. Imagine entering that room, and firing at every single person there. Every single one. And for what? In this case they say, political power. One of the victims reportedly was a father of seven. Another victim was a 67-year-old woman. There were at least 12 journalists. There were women. There was mention of rape. And I have no more words.

warning: cheesy post ahead

Month number 1 on the 17th.

♥

Thank you. The flowers looked amazing.

* * *

We went to UP on Friday. Ah, UP. You shall remain beautiful to me forever and ever.

I got him a book (a book, yes, because I am cool like that). I was planning to get more dangling earrings, but the jewelry selection in the Christmas tiangge this year underwhelmed me.

Passed through AS. Amazing how everyone looked so young. Amazing how everyone looked so young now, to me.